


Red as Blood, Yellow as Sunshine

by Raphiday



Series: Vampire Slayer AU [1]
Category: Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic
Genre: Dhampir AU, F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, Vampire Slayer AU, it's pretty much the same Magi universe but with vampires and dhampirs added
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-12
Updated: 2017-07-12
Packaged: 2018-12-01 10:01:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 23,966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11484048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raphiday/pseuds/Raphiday
Summary: Vampire Slayer AU; Newly-graduated Magnostadt alumnus and Magi Aladdin nearly gets eaten by vampires and runs into two vampire-slaying troupes: the Fog Troupe, led by Kassim and Mariam, and the Fanalis Corps, led by Morgiana and Myron.  The journey he takes with them leads him to Balbadd, the improbable sanctuary country that has been taking in fleeing humans and dhampirs alike, regardless of political circumstance.  There Aladdin and the others learn learn the dark secret that creates a sanctuary country and lays cruel chains on its king: Alibaba Saluja, Aladdin’s dear friend and King candidate, who it might already be too late to save.





	Red as Blood, Yellow as Sunshine

PART 1

The streets of Qishan were always quiet at night, well, as quiet as they could be with the undercurrent sound of shushes and “ _Don’t let them see you_ ”s ringing softly through the air.  The hints of should-be bustling life were always there, from the scent of rushed dinners to pointedly dimmed lights outside house doors to the barking of dogs followed by desperate pleas for silence.   

An oddity of a man walked perhaps a bit too nonchalantly down these streets more or less alone; perhaps he suspected his long, telltale blue braid and sinewy stature would discourage any potential attackers.  If nothing else, the man must have thought that the large, crooked staff in his hand, thrumming with heat and power, would have done the trick.

He was holding a shellphone in his hand, and the voice on the other side of it blared out, “Aladdin, have you gotten yourself a place to stay yet?”

Aladdin sighed; he said, speaking directly into it and looking around, “Titus, Sphintus, I’ll be fine!”

He was met with an exasperated groan in reply and a worried “It’s getting dark in Qishan, and you know vampires have far more power there under Jamil’s reign than almost anywhere else in the world, so any attacks they might make upon you–”

“Titus, it’s not like they’re all monsters just itching to nab the nearest Magi they can find!”  Aladdin tried desperately not to roll his eyes, tried to remember that the first vampire Titus had met was neither the iron-willed, noble Ja’far nor the friendly, flirtatious and surprisingly gentle-hearted Pisti nor even Yunan, an eccentric fellow Magi turned vampire, but rather Jamil, a piece of work that’d turn anyone’s opinion against vampires were they to generalize them by his example.

Sphintus blurted out over Titus, “I told you that staying at Remano an extra day would do you well, but do you listen to me?  Noooooooo!”

Titus continued, “Just because we’ve all graduated from Magnostadt Academy and you’ve had the good luck of meeting friendly vampires doesn’t mean you can take any unnecessary risks, Aladdin.  And no, not even we with all our powers as Magi are safe from a sufficiently powerful vampire.”

“Fine, I’ll make it quick, just let me cast this tracking spell–” Aladdin said, grumbling as he attempted to finish the call before running into a hard, tall body.

“No, we’re talking to you until you find a place to stay–Aladdin?  Aladdin can you hear us?”

For in those fleeting moments Aladdin had taken to regain his bearings, he had found himself surrounded by not one, not two, but five vampires that looked as though they could bend him in half.  Aladdin gulped into the phone entirely by accident, and he could hear both Titus and Sphintus’s panicked screams of “ALADDIN!” as he shut off the phone.

Sure, a single vampire of this ability would be easy for Aladdin to take out.  Not five of them, especially since, once again, they all looked like they could bend Aladdin in half.  And especially not when one of them had the bright idea of stealing his staff.

“Give me back my staff!” Aladdin said, jumping up in vain to retrieve it.  Granted, the vampire was nearly seven feet tall without standing on the tips of his toes, and that vampire was rude enough to do just that.  Even with the growth spurt he had in Magnostadt, Aladdin would have to climb on the bastard. _Rude_. 

“Oh, you’ll make quite the treat for our king,” one of the vampires, sniffing at Aladdin’s neck as she grabbed his left arm; she then turned to who appeared to the be leader of the vampiric gang and asked, “Are you  _ sure _ we can’t sample him first?”

The man holding his staff said, waving it around tauntingly, “Jamil has made it clear that any magical blood is to be sent directly to him, no drainage allowed.”

_ Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck _ , Aladdin thought as he struggled in the grasp of the sniffing vampire and another one that had come to join her.  He looked around for any walls hard enough enough for him to climb on, any way to leverage himself out of their heavy hold.

“I can’t help myself, sir, he smells too good!” the sniffing vampire said, and she dragged Aladdin to her and bit down on his neck.  

Aladdin screamed;  _ so  _ this _ is what it’s like to have your blood taken from you _ , he thought as he desperately tried to wriggle away from her grasp.  If only he could find a way to trip the lead vampire and take back his staff, he could have a fighting chance….

“Damn it, I told you no drainage!” Aladdin could hear the leader of this vampiric group yell at the vampire drinking his blood, and he found himself trying to shuffle toward said vampire to no avail.

Aladdin was getting woozy with blood loss, the vampire at his neck never letting up, and as he felt the effects of blood loss seeping in, he weakly cried out, “Give me back my staff, dammit….”

Two blaringly loud sound-bursts later, Aladdin’s captors dropped dead to the ground.  However, since they had become his primary means of balance, Aladdin also found himself dropping to the ground.  As he tried to steady himself and reach for his staff (by some providence of Solomon, the lead vampire had dropped it in the chaos), he looked up blearily at his rescuer, a small, dreadlocked, oddly  _ familiar _ young woman gingerly holding a smoking weapon in her hand (perhaps a new means of utilizing heat magic?) and quietly determined that she was the most beautiful creature in the world. 

She turned to him, bright brown eyes widened with recognition, and that sweet familiarity was blearily confirmed.  “ _ Mariam _ ?” he managed to say, one hand reaching out to her before he knew no more.

\------------------

It was supposed to be a normal night patrolling the streets of Qishan.  The streets were normally void of non-vampiric life starting at the twilight hour (or as void as they could be), and Mariam mused to herself that she couldn’t blame them.  Qishan was, after all, the most dangerous country in the world for non-vampires.

As a result, however, of their common sense, the streets also grew lonely at this hour, lonely enough for Mariam to almost see shadows when they weren’t there.  So when she found herself hearing a conversation between not one, not two, but  _ three _ people two streets away, she couldn’t help but look closer.  Therefore, she sent a quick message to Kassim ( _ shellphones are a godsend _ , she thought right afterward), slipped the corner to where she might run into the trio having their odd little conversation, and almost didn’t hear the flurry of steps heading the same direction.  Almost.

_ Oh Solomon not an attack! _ She thought frantically, and she dashed to where a panicked voice began to scream.  “ _ Give me back my staff, dammit _ ,” Mariam heard a rapidly weakening voice cry out, and she felt her blood run cold.  She ran faster to the site of the attack and an all-too-familiar face greeted her;  _ Aladdin _ , she thought.

By instinct she shot them, silver bullets hitting both their marks within the second.  The sight that followed, however, the one of Aladdin reaching out to her, calling out her name and collapsing right after, made her fear she might have been too late.

She then stood over Aladdin’s unmoving form and shot furiously at two of the other vampires, each bullet hitting its mark.  The leader had stood back, watching his so-called comrades fall with almost a look of amusement in his eyes.   _ So much for honor amongst vampires _ , Mariam thought as she aimed her gun at the leader of this vampiric gang.

“So you’re the adorable vampire slayer the community’s been buzzing about?” he teased, circling around her and playing with the staff in his hands.  “I didn’t expect you to smell so good.”

“Well, I’m not on the menu,” Mariam said, shooting at the leader… only to find that she missed.   _ Fuck _ .

“Just a bite, just one little bite and I’ll be on my merry way,” he said, suddenly pulling her close, grabbing her gun, and tossing it aside.  His hands slithered through her hair and pulled her neck back, exposing the artery he would bite in three, two,  _ one–  _

A shot rang in the air, and the leader dropped dead in front of her.  Mariam sighed and thanked Solomon she had six bullets.

She turned around to see Aladdin, eyes woozy from blood loss but looking slightly awestruck at the gun trembling in his hands; he said, turning to Mariam with concern, perhaps, in his eyes, “So  _ that’s _ how this works?”  

She wrenched Aladdin’s staff from the still-firm grip of the vampire leader’s corpse and handed it to him, saying, “Aladdin you have to stay with me, all right?”

“You’re so pretty,” he mumbled to her chest, and Mariam rolled her eyes as she picked him up.

“Lean on your staff, Aladdin, not my chest,” Mariam said;  _ thank Solomon our current headquarters is only a couple blocks away _ , she thought as she dragged Aladdin down the street.  

“Your chest is more comfy,” Aladdin said, and Mariam almost laughed; she had missed him since he went away to Magnostadt Academy, that famously magicians-only school that permitted no visitors, especially not those pesky Goi.  Not even King Alibaba, Aladdin’s King Candidate and best friend, had been allowed to see him while he worked at his studies, so why would she have been?  

Now really wasn’t the time, however, to think overlong on how she had missed Aladdin while he had been at Magnostadt, when if she didn’t move quickly enough she’d be missing him for far more permanent reasons.  She found the headquarters and knocked at the door to find no immediate answer; normally she’d be less frustrated by that, but she was holding someone that kept slumping more and more, losing grip on the staff in his hands–

“Kassim, Hassan, Zaynab, SOMEBODY let me in! I have another rescue right here, and he's fading fast!” Mariam yelled as she rammed her fist against the door and struggled to hold up a woozy Aladdin.  “You owe me so much for this, Aladdin.”

“All right, all right, come on in!” Zaynab said, opening the door, dragging Mariam and Aladdin quickly into the room, and slamming the door shut in the span of ten seconds.  “Bring the tiny magi to me.”

“Wait, Aladdin’s here?” a rough voice said from the other side of the room.  Kassim got up from the chair he had been wiping his gun on and approached him.  He examined Aladdin’s wound, pointedly ignored Aladdin’s ramblings on how pretty his little sister was, and said, pouring some wine on the wound, “That's certainly a vicious bite, survivable, of course, especially since you brought him here to us, but vicious nonetheless.”

“He’ll be all right?”

“Yes, Mariam, he will be,” Kassim said, ruffling her hair, “You did good out there, little vampire slayer.”  At that moment, Mariam finally allowed herself to cry.

\---------------------

Aladdin woke up to the sight of four Fog Troupe members peering over him: Kassim, Mariam, Zaynab and Hassan all looked with concern at the bite mark on Aladdin’s neck.

“It’s been a while, tiny magi,” Hassan said, ruffling Aladdin’s hair while cradling an unfamiliar baby in his arms.

“I had my growth spurt last year,” Aladdin grumbled, rubbing at the wound on his neck and getting ointment on his hand. 

“Still tiny.”

“Anyone's tiny compared to you, Hassan,” Zaynab said, poking fondly at her husband.

“I seem to recall you quite liking my size when we’re alone,” Hassan growled sultrily into Zaynab’s ear, and Zaynab giggled at his arms around her waist.

“Not around my baby sister, guys, come on!” Kassim grumbled.

“Kassim, I am old enough to know what sex is, I’ll be fine,” Mariam said, fondly rolling her eyes at both Kassim’s protectiveness and Hassan and Zaynab’s affection; she then turned to Aladdin and said, her tone changing entirely, “I see Magnostadt Academy did very little in the way of teaching you common sense.” 

“And I see Kassim did very much in the way of teaching you cynicism,” Aladdin replied, grinning up at her from the bed.

“When the difference between living to see another day and dying by a vampire bite depends on perhaps having a slightly less rose-colored view of the world than your average fool, then yes, cynicism is a good lesson to teach,” Kassim said, glaring daggers at Aladdin.

“What’s that, in your hand?” Aladdin said, trying to change the subject; “I saw Mariam firing two of those while saving me, and then I fired it myself to save her.”

“It’s a gun,” Kassim said.

“Huh?”

“Aladdin went to magic school for three years, you can’t just expect him to know what a gun is,” Mariam said, her voice almost teasing.   _ But then again, it might be wishful thinking on your part _ , Aladdin thought.

Conversation continued as such until Mariam said, taking Hassan and Zaynab with her, “We need to check on the people we’ve rescued from Jamil’s dungeons. I trust that Kassim won't somehow manage to kill Aladdin in the time we're gone.”

The door closed, and Aladdin sat up fully, looking at Kassim with questions in his eyes.  “You always look at me like you hate me,” he said, “I know Mariam doesn’t seem to, but you really do.”

Kassim glared at Aladdin and said, “Well, you managed to make my sister cry within five minutes of seeing her for the first time in three years, so I think I have some right to dislike you.” There were of course other reasons for the stony look in Kassim’s eyes, but even Aladdin knew better than to pry further. 

The room remained dead silent until Mariam, Zaynab and Hassan came back, refugees in tow. It took a solid five minutes to get everyone in the room comfortably, and Aladdin at last was forced to leave his bed and stand by the bedside table. 

Mariam spoke up, “Alright, everybody, we’re leaving for Balbadd tomorrow.”

Hassan continued, noting the excited eyes of the refugees, “Jamil’s sending out his most brutal hunters to try to retrieve you, his  _ former _ blood slaves, and I repeat that, you are his slaves no longer, so we need to leave quickly if we’re to keep all of you away from him.”

Aladdin nodded; he remembered full well the danger of a furious Jamil even five years after the fact.  He and Alibaba had barely escaped with their own lives that day, let alone Morgiana’s.

“We have about fifty people with us right now–”

“Forty-eight on the dot!” a tiny young woman with chopped brown hair, looking barely older than Mariam and Aladdin, chirped.

Zaynab said, beginning to separate the refugees into groups, “Good to know; the group will split into four groups of twelve, each led by a core member of the Fog Troupe.  We will convene together in the evenings to ensure that we’re all safe, but these groups are for daytime travel.”

“How is this going to work?” a young man with bright blue eyes and brown skin (he appeared to have originally hailed from Heliohapt) said.  “I mean, how is a group of fifty-something people going to sneak out of Qishan from right under Jamil’s nose?”

“Well, I suppose it’s a stroke of grand luck that we have a newly-graduated-from-Magnostadt-Academy Magi here with us, isn’t it?” Kassim said, grinning at Aladdin.

\---------------------

Leaving Qishan at daytime proved far easier than it might have been, considering Aladdin was hard at work keeping the cloaking spell up over the four smaller crowds.  “Maybe next time I’ll ask Kouha to call in a favor from Koumei,” Aladdin said, “Dantalion’s magic would be really useful here.”

“You can’t imitate it?” Mariam held out a kebab to Aladdin’s mouth, motioning at him to take a bite. 

Aladdin said, talking with his mouth full, “Djinn’s magic is specialized to the point where it can't be replicated even by Magi. Djinns do this intentionally, you know.”

“I think I heard the reason once before,” Mariam said, “It's to give whoever they choose as their King candidate a fighting chance against whoever they may be fighting. It's also why a djinn has never chosen a vampire for a King candidate; vampires already have an advantage, power-wise.”

Aladdin grinned at her and said, finishing off the kebab and holding the cloaking spell in place, “Yeah, Amon was furious when Jamil demanded that he be chosen, and when Alibaba claimed him right under Jamil’s nose, the look on his face was absolutely priceless–”

Kassim approached them and said, a thoughtful look on his face, “I read about the generations of Magi before this one; how come so many Magi eventually become vampires? Because you're the only non-vampiric Magi I know of.”

Aladdin raised an eyebrow, wondering why Kassim would ask that question in particular, if an  _ Are you going to become one?  _ was hidden beneath it, and a  _ Would you turn Alibaba and/or Mariam into vampires too?  _ lay hidden beneath even the first hidden question. Still, it did no harm to answer him. “Titus is actually a dhampir; his mom Scheherazade was a vampire, and if I remember correctly she became one to ensure that the kingship of Reim would remain in the Alexius family line. Next time I see either Judal or Yunan, though, I’ll ask them their reasons.” 

As they trekked the desert, they spotted another, smaller group approaching the same path they were. As they got closer, they could note the bright, telltale crimson hair of about half of their cohort, and they knew: the Fanalis Corps was here. 

Aladdin spotted Morgiana amongst the Fanalis Corps’s leaders, and he dashed toward her, almost forgetting to keep up the cloaking spell.  “Morgiana-chan!” he said, giving her a huge hug.  “Where are you going?”

“We’re heading to Balbadd, specifically Koutown, to drop off our refugees.  We managed to save twenty dhampirs this time!” Morgiana said, pride evident in her voice.  “You’re going to Balbadd as well?”

Kassim replied, approaching Aladdin and Morgiana, “Yeah, we have some former blood slaves from Qishan that we’re sending there.  Once they’re in Balbadd, King Jamil and his fucked-up cohort can’t ask for them back.”

“And if he tried, King Alibaba would simply let out Amon and set him on fire again!” a member of the Fanalis Corp said, laughter in his eyes and among the crowd of Fanalis soldiers.

“I take it your refugees are from the Kou Empire, then?”

Morgiana answered with a quizzical look on her face, “Yes… is that a problem, Kassim?”

“No,” Kassim said, yet as he told Mariam to tell Aladdin to lift the cloaking spell, he added, “Just make sure they don’t feed on  _ our _ refugees while we’re not looking.”

\---------------------

Four weeks of travel passed, and the Fog Troupe and Fanalis Corps held a tenuous, almost viciously-kept agreement that two camps would be created each night; the former blood slaves would rest on one side, and the dhampirs would rest on the other, and never should the two cross paths.

However, this arrangement found itself undermined almost immediately, as trepidation became curiosity curiously quick, and the former blood slaves would often visit the dhampirs, wandering aloud at the tragedy of their stories, and vice versa. Acquaintance then became friendship, and more than once either Hassan, Kassim, Muu (the official leader of the Fanalis Corps) or Myron (the unofficial leader of the Fanalis Corps) would find themselves pulling a passionately kissing dhampir and former blood slave apart from each other. And then the inevitable happened.

A dhampir had lost control of his bloodlust and bit a former blood slave he had been talking with, and panic had quickly spread throughout the former blood slave camp due to a vicious fight caused by the bitten former blood slave’s surrogate sister.

Aladdin and Mariam each held an arm of a struggling young woman barely their age (the same one, Mariam noted, that had successfully counted the number of refugees in Qishan) screaming at the offending dhampir, “You let him go, damn it!  I already lost Matteo, I’m not losing another brother to assholes like you!”

A young man, once again oddly familiar (he had asked how they'd be able to escape), around eighteen or so, was holding a bloodied towel to his neck and trying to calm down his surrogate sister. “Hey, Patina, I’m going to be okay, it was an accident and I already have medicine on it to slow the bleeding–”

A pained voice from a pale young man with dark hair and violet eyes cried out, reaching for his shoulder, “I’m so, so sorry, Lavi–”

“You don’t touch him!” Patina snarled, breaking free of Aladdin and Mariam’s grasp and slicing at the young dhampir’s hand with a silver blade. 

Lavi stepped in front of the dhampir and said, “Patina, Koushi’s more wracked up about this than I am!”

“But what Koushi did to you, it's what Lorant–”

“Koushi is not Lorant, Patina! I know that bastard killed Matteo, but Koushi won't purposely hurt me,” Lavi said, laying a tender hand on Patina’s face. 

“What’s going on here?” Morgiana said, storming onto the scene with concern in her eyes. 

Kassim ran to her and began to yell, “I don't know, how about you tell me! I told you the Fanalis Corps needed to keep these fucking dhampirs in line–”

“How about you calm the fuck down and stop yelling at my girlfriend, you fucking prick?!” Myron said, murder in her eyes.

“I dunno, maybe once  _ your _ refugees stop eying  _ ours _ like they’re breakfast, I’ll be a little calmer.”

“Most of our refugees have been fine with the meals we’ve given them, which don’t have human or Fanalis blood in them, just to make it perfectly clear to your measly little shit-brain, and it’s been nearly a month of travel and this is the first attack!” Myron said.

“Maybe if you kept your refugees in your camp, we wouldn’t be having this problem!”

Myron then grabbed Kassim by the shirt, pulled him close to her and yelled, “Maybe if  _ your _ refugees had any sense of boundaries–”

Mariam then jumped into the fray of the fight, screaming, “You’re blaming the victim here, how dare you, you fucking–”

“Don’t you dare test me, you little brat!  I won’t hesitate to smash you into the ground if you insinuate one more time that I’d–”

“Myr-chan, simmer down, the Fog Troupe’s our ally, whether we like or not,” Morgiana said, pulling her back and glaring at Kassim and Mariam while Aladdin pulled them back with a deftly-placed telekinetic spell. 

Kassim sighed, having calmed down slightly, “We have to bring the dhampir to trial.”

Myron then yelled, not having calmed down at all, “What kind of piss-shit trial can we even hold here?!”

Morgiana sighed, narrowed her eyes, and mentally made a checklist of silent self-reassurances; it had been nearly a month since they left Qishan, they’d be in Balbadd in less than a week, and then the Fanalis Corps and the Fog Troupe would part ways and hopefully never see each other again. And then she’d force her poor, overworked girlfriend to finally take a vacation for everyone's sakes. 

Koushi saw Morgiana’s narrowed eyes and looked panicked, blurting out for the twentieth time in an hour, “I’m so sorry, Lavi, I should have told you to keep your distance, I should have warned you I was hungry–”

Lavi, though still visibly shaken up and holding the cleanest rag he could find to his neck, said, “I know you didn’t mean to bite, Koushi, just warn me next time.”  He then grinned, somehow imitated Mariam’s guns with his fingers, winked, and said, flirtation dripping in his voice, “Honestly, I might have taken that warning as a challenge, perhaps given you more…  _ interesting _ ideas as to where to bite me.”

“For fuck’s sake, Lavi!” both a visibly calmer Patina and Koushi said, the former with a hand to her face and the latter visibly blushing.

Mariam blinked about five times and said, “Well, that… can we call that a trial?”

Kassim replied, “Maybe, in the loosest definition of the term possible.”

Mariam laughed and said, “All right, that trial certainly had an interesting conclusion.”

Aladdin then added, “You’re telling me that our dhampir and blood slave-”

“We have names, you know!” they both shouted.

Aladdin then continued, “Fine, you’re telling me that Koushi and Lavi managed to resolve the argument more quickly and more effectively than everyone else here did?”

“Damn it, Aladdin!” chorused everyone but Mariam and Aladdin.

“Oh shit,” Mariam suddenly said, her guns at the ready.

“What now?!” Myron said, half-laughing, half crying with mad frustration.

“You know those hunters we’ve been worried about regarding our refugees?”

“Yeah?”

“They’re here.” They looked up to the other side of the hill they had made their camp on to find a white-haired man staring with ruthless hunger down at them. Fucking Fatima, the most vicious blood slave hunter in the world, was there with his pack of leashed vampire tigers. And he had  _ found _ them. 

“It seems as though I’ve found myself a marvelously large batch of blood slaves to bring back to King Jamil,” Fatima said. He then glanced at the group in front of him, noticed Myron and Lavi, and said, “Oh, and I’m quite sure that Lorant would be quite pleased with me for bringing his two favorites back–”

Koushi suddenly lunged at Fatima, fangs bared, and found himself slapped to the ground by one of the tigers. 

“Koushi!” Lavi cried out, running to him and glaring at Fatima as he dragged him away from the tiger’s claws.

“I’m going to kill that bastard for what he threatened to do to you–”

Kassim pulled Koushi back, saying “I like your zeal for the fight, but I think it'd be put to best use protecting Lavi and the others, all right?” 

“Oh, would you look at that… my grip’s slipping,” Fatima said, letting go of the vampire tigers and watching them run toward the other former blood slaves.

Muu took out his sword and cried out, “Morgiana, Myron, take out the tigers!”

“Will do, big brother!” a still noticeably shaking Myron said, grabbing Morgiana’s hand and dashing toward the newly-unleashed tigers. 

“We’re helping too!” Zaynab and Hassan said, guns at the ready as they ran behind them.

“Mariam, Aladdin, Kassim, you too Koushi and Lavi, get the refugees to safety and fast!” 

“Me too!” Patina shouted.

“You're fifteen!”

“So are they, Lavi!” Patina yelled, motioning toward Aladdin and Mariam.

“The tiny girl makes a good point,” Muu said, and that was that. 

“What about you, Muu?” Kassim said; for all his gripes with his younger sister, he couldn't help but respect the man. 

“I’m taking out Fatima,” Muu said, his eyes suddenly vicious.  “This is for Rohroh,” he snarled and he launched himself at Fatima, punching him in the face.

Five minutes later, the tigers lay dead at Morgiana’s feet, and two words could be heard over the rest of the fighting.

“BARD ROMH!”

\---------------------

Songs of victory were being sung over the campfire that night as they roasted vampire tiger for dinner; for once, both camps were invited to feast together.  The dhampirs delighted in the vampire tiger blood they poured all over the charred meat, whereas the non-dhampiric sort were content with bloodless tiger meat.

Myron had called dibs on the skins of two of the tigers (the Fanalis knew her well her exact intent for them and grinned widely), and Hassan and Zaynab each claimed another tiger skin. 

“We work far better together than apart,” Muu said, extending a hand to Zaynab and Hassan.  “Shall we travel together the rest of the way?”

“I suppose that’s for the best,” Zaynab said, “Now to tell Kassim, Mariam and Myron that.”

“Oh, that will be a challenge I reserve for Morgiana,” Muu said, laughing, “That woman knows how to call Myron down like no other creature on this earth.”

Zaynab approached the campfire and Kassim, a plate of tiger meat for him in hand, and he took it, saying, “I heard your conversation with Muu, and I agree. It's not too long before we reach Balbadd, and with Al-Thamen attempting a perimeter there we’ll need as many protective units around our refugees as possible.”

“I honestly don’t know how he did it,” a member of the Fanalis Corps, Kassim didn’t particularly care which at the moment, said over the campfire.  

“How who did what?” an unfamiliar dhampir asked. 

“How King Alibaba managed to make Balbadd a sanctuary country.  Its population has nearly doubled over the past eighteen months because of it, and we might just be bringing the people who’ll put that number over the top,” 

Kassim cringed, wrapping the blanket around himself and glaring at the fire.  Mariam raised an eyebrow and plopped herself next to Kassim, eating her meal without him leaving her sight.

When she finished her meal, Mariam said, plopping the empty bowl on Kassim’s lap, “You cringe whenever you hear Alibaba’s name anymore, Kassim.  What’s up with that?”

“I’m just cold, Mariam.”

“Are you sure, Kassim?  Because it’s been cold a while and you only started shivering once Alibaba’s name got mentioned.”

“I’m sure.” Mariam sighed sadly and left, picking up her bowl from Kassim’s lap. 

Aladdin slid up to Kassim two minutes later, a curious look on his face, and asked, “So, what's going on with Alibaba-kun?”

Kassim exploded at him, “If I won’t tell Mariam anything other than that I’m cold, why would I say anything to the stupid Magi that helped Alibaba back onto the throne of Balbadd and into this fucked-up situation?!”

“So there is something going on!” Mariam said, suddenly popping out from behind the tree.

“Mariam, dammit!”

“What is going on with Alibaba in Balbadd, Kassim?” Kassim glared at the two of them, turned around and walked away from the campfire.  After insisting on taking watch over the others, Kassim talked to nobody else for the rest of the night.

\---------------------

The royal palace of Balbadd was bustling with activity; a surprise visit from a foreign dignitary was always quite the event.  That said foreign dignitary was King Sinbad of Sindria lent special significance to their preparations, for Sindria and Balbadd had enjoyed a special friendship from Sindria’s founding onward.  However, King Alibaba wasn’t quite looking forward to King Sinbad’s visit as much as he usually would, and the letter in his hand was part of the reason why.

Alibaba read the offending letter for the fifth time in two days, concern wrinkling his features as he ate an apple, a small loaf of bread waiting temptingly on his lap.  

_ King Alibaba, _

_ I’ve received some disconcerting news regarding the reason behind your ability to create in Balbadd a sanctuary country.  I will be coming to Balbadd by the end of the week, where we can talk about this as men.  Ja’far will be coming with me, so make preparations for him as well.  Make sure Yunan isn’t there.  I’m not so sure I won’t kill him if he is. _

_ Sincerely,  _

_ King Sinbad _

As Alibaba finished the letter, a tired-looking man in his early thirties sat down next to him, tilted his head and asked, “Why do you eat like a peasant?”

“I like this food, Sahbmad, try some,” Alibaba replied, handing his brother a piece each of apple and bread.

Sahbmad took the piece of apple to his mouth, bit down and smiled, taking bite after bite of the piece of apple he was given until he found himself unconsciously licking his fingers.  “I’d forgotten how good apples tasted.”

“If everyone in the country at least has this to eat, then I’ll be content,” Alibaba said, taking off his necklace and handing it over to Sahbmad, “Sell this and buy enough bread and apples for the people of the slums.”

“No,” Sahbmad said quietly.  “I can’t do this, this is our father’s necklace, he meant it for you-”

“He meant for our country to survive, Sahbmad-”

“And our country will survive once this arrangement has been made with Sindria,” Sahbmad said, placing the necklace back around Alibaba’s neck, “You need to look like a king in order to negotiate with Sinbad, Alibaba, we both know this.  And we both know what our father  _ really _ meant to Sinbad, so perhaps we could use that to our advantage–”

Alibaba sighed, letting Sahbmad place the necklace back on him.  “I still have the crown, and you’re beginning to sound more like Koumei every day.”  His tone became teasing when he added, “I’m beginning to wonder whether your  _ intimate friendship _ with Koumei is becoming a bad influence on you–”

“Alibaba!” Sahbmad scolded, his face bright red with implication.  Alibaba then pointedly didn’t hear Sahbmad’s mutterings regarding him and Hakuryuu.

“Keep the necklace, I can sell this,” Sahbmad then spoke up, pulling out a set of five ruby rings.  “This will fetch about as much as the necklace would have, and-”

“They’re your mother’s, Sahbmad–”

“She meant for our country to survive, Alibaba,” he said, an air of finality to his words that Alibaba had never expected from him.  Alibaba smiled.  His brother had come a long way from the man huddling in the corner and clutching Ahbmad’s murdered body when The Banker tried to take over Balbadd, and if Koumei had been some part of that, then Alibaba would think him a better influence on Sahbmad than his teasing implied.  Sahbmad then left the room, munching on the piece of bread Alibaba had given him all the way out.

Moments later, Hakuryuu entered the room with a small, steaming plate of beef noodles and a fond smile on his face. 

“Hakuryuu, what’s this–”

“Eat.  You need meat, Alibaba-dono,” Hakuryuu said, his face slightly flushed.

“I’ll be fine, Hakuryuu-”

“You in particular need multiple sources of protein in your diet, and I won’t let you risk getting iller because you won’t take care of yourself,” Hakuryuu said, plopping the bowl of beef noodles onto Alibaba’s lap.

“I’m not going to make myself an exception to the court’s decree cutting back on meats, I can just have a bowl of beans and rice later today–”

“ _ I made it myself, just try it _ !” Hakuryuu stammered, his face turning redder by the second.

Alibaba’s eyes lit up with recognition, and he took the knife from Hakuryuu’s hand and began to slice up the beef, wrapping a few noodles around it right afterward.  He placed the bite into his mouth and moaned, “This is delicious, thank you so much!”

Hakuryuu’s eyes almost sparkled with joy as he said, “You’re more than welcome!”  

He turned to leave when Alibaba said, “Stay, I want you to have some of this too!  You’re the one who made it, after all,” grinning like a maniac and holding out a bite of beef noodles for Hakuryuu to have.  After Hakuryuu took the bite and sighed his approval, Alibaba said, “Husani must have been furious when you demanded to be allowed to cook for me.”

“Your royal chef, though a bit younger than I anticipated, really, how did you get away with hiring an eighteen-year-old as your head chef, is quite the zealot for good food, and I am a bit of a wild card in the kitchen, so I can’t quite blame him,” Hakuryuu said, letting himself be so improprietous as to talk with his mouth full.

“I think you’re fantastic!” Alibaba said, peppering kisses on Hakuryuu’s cheeks and munching on the beef noodles, somehow managing to do both at the same time without coming off like a crazed man.  But then again, Hakuryuu thought to himself, love could simply be blinding him and warping Alibaba’s taste buds.

“You might be a bit biased, Alibaba-dono.”  Alibaba just shrugged.  They then finished the bowl in record time, Alibaba happily slurping the last of the noodles and Hakuryuu taking that last bite of beef at Alibaba’s repeated insistence.

Alibaba then said, snuggling into Hakuryuu’s embrace, “I’m getting pretty tired now, so I think I’ll take a nap right here!” He then proceeded to plop his head onto Hakuryuu’s lap and prompt a crimson blush. 

“You’re far more tired than you were before, Alibaba-dono,” Hakuryuu said, playing with Alibaba’s hair and tracing his lips with his fingers.  “Also I think you have some beef in your teeth.”

“Dealing with Yunan has just been a little rougher than usual lately, considering he’s our primary defense and Al-Thamen’s decided to outright declare war on Balbadd now.  Also rude, but thank you.”

Hakuryuu leaned down for a kiss before the door suddenly opened to reveal a young woman, resplendent in far too many layers of robes for the weather. But then again, when one is a dhampir and exiled princess in possession of a water djinn, one can wear whatever she wants. 

She smiled and said, “I don't mean to interrupt your darling romance, but–”

Hakuryuu narrowed his eyes at her and said, “Yes you do, Kougyoku, don't lie to us!”

“Is something going on?”

Kougyoku smiled as she watched Alibaba get up from Hakuryuu’s lap and Hakuryuu sullenly compose himself and said, “We have guests.”

“You don’t mean to tell me that Sinbad’s already here?!” Alibaba said, his eyes widening as he ran out the door.

Kougyoku and Hakuryuu ran to catch up with Alibaba, and Kougyoku yelled as she tried to grab him, “I didn’t necessarily mean Sinbad, Alibaba-chan–”

Alibaba walked up to the throne, threw his arms out in proclamation and yelled, “Sinbad, welcome to Balb–Aladdin?!”

“Alibaba-kun!” Aladdin yelled, and he ran into Alibaba’s arms and hugged him for deal life.

Alibaba said, his grin widening as he ran to them and enveloped them in a tight hug, “I’ve missed you so much!”

“Kassim, Mariam, Mor-san…” Alibaba said, his eyes watering with joyous tears.  “There’s so many people here, the Fog Troupe and the Fanalis Corps and all these other people I don’t know….”

“Yeah, we have some more refugees to house, about seventy of them, I think,” Kassim said. 

“Sixty-eight on the dot!”

“Thank you, Patina,” Koushi said sarcastically; he was still smarting a bit from her attack on him. 

“You're welcome, so when are we going to figure out where we're staying?” she replied with a wry smile. 

Morgiana began to laugh softly to herself as she asked, “Did you forget that we were coming, Alibaba-san?” The suddenly (and comically) guilty look on Alibaba’s face betrayed his answer.

“Mor-san, you finally brought Myron with you!” Alibaba said, approaching the group and vigorously shaking Myron’s hand, “It’s about time I vetted the woman Morgiana can’t stop talking about.”

“What are those?” Kassim said, pointing at Kougyoku and Hakuryuu, who were standing near the bottom of the throne.  

“Hello...”

“Ugh, your blood smells  _ rancid _ ,” Kougyoku said, wrinkling her nose at Kassim.

“ _ Excuse me _ ?”

Hakuryuu placed a hand to Kougyoku’s shoulder and said, “He doesn’t smell rancid, Kougyoku, just because he’s not Alibaba-dono–”

“ _ Fuck you _ !” Kassim yelled; he would never admit to the tone of hurt feeling in his voice.

“Well, stop smelling bad and I won’t point it out!” Kougyoku said, her face slightly flushed.

“Sinbad is going to be arriving at any moment, and the last thing Balbadd needs is for Sinbad’s first impression of it to be you two fighting like rabid dogs!”  Kougyoku backed away, and tears could be seen forming from her eyes.  Kassim simply glared at the deputy king. “Speaking of which, Sinbad and Ja’far are here, your Majesty.”

Alibaba then ran back up the the throne (he had been assigning guards to guide the refugees to rooms in the palace for the night), once again spread out his arms in welcome and said, “King Sinbad, Ja’far, wel–”

“I think we’ve outgrown the need for such formalities, Alibaba-kun,” Sinbad said, a sad, achingly fond smile on his face.

Alibaba’s shoulders visibly relaxed, and he ran to Sinbad and said, “It’s so wonderful to see you, Sinbad!  How have you and Ja’far been, and how are Pisti and Spartos doing back in Sindria? What about Sharr–”

Sinbad’s expression grew firmer, and he said, “I think you and I both know that I’ve come here with a specific question in mind.”

Alibaba gulped and asked, “I know we need to talk about the contract and get it signed, we’ve both obviously read it and made our alterations and–”

“The contract is very good, Alibaba-kun.  I have no problems with it.  My only question before we sign the contract to enhance our trading alliance is this,” Sinbad said, sounding almost as though he already knew the answer, “How did you make Balbadd a sanctuary country, especially in an area where some of the most powerful vampires in the world run rampant?”

Alibaba instinctively placed a hand to the right side of his neck, lifting the rope that had been there to reveal an intricate mark; it comprised of four white feathers interspersed with each other and wrapped around a golden ring.  Sinbad gasped, his own mark (two silver assassin’s blades connected by a single red string) shining in sharp relief.

Kassim huffed and said, his voice more venomous with every word, “It seems the elephant in the room has at last made its presence noticed; Alibaba’s been in a blood contract with Yunan for the past eighteen months.” The room cast itself into deadly silence for a minute, and then it exploded with noise.

“Kassim, you  _ knew _ this?!” Mariam said, betrayal painting her face.

Panic welled up in Sahbmad’s eyes as he stammered, “Wait, why didn’t anyone tell me about this, Alibaba, you’re making a huge mistake-”

“Where have you  _ been _ , Sahbmad?!”  A vicious “What kind of brother are you?!” was uttered under Kassim’s breath right afterward, and Alibaba stepped in front of Sahbmad protectively after hearing it.  

Kassim then asked Alibaba, “Why Alibaba?  You never told me, what could have possibly possessed you to do this?!”

Kougyoku stepped beside Alibaba and asked Kassim, her fangs coming out, “You can’t possibly see any reason why Alibaba would do this, not even one?!”

“I certainly don’t see one!” Myron yelled; she then blanched and frantically turned around, terrified of the implication of what she said.

Kougyoku ran forward and grabbed Myron by the armor, hissing, “There are  _ thousands _ of reasons living in this country precisely because of what he did, you  _ literally brought reasons why Alibaba would do this with you _ , or do  _ our _ lives not matter–”

“Myron-chan, Kougyoku-san, you need to stop this now!” Morgiana yelled, pulling them apart and giving her girlfriend a punishing glare.  “I don’t agree with Alibaba-san’s actions either, but saying that in front of someone who’s only alive because of them is not our place.”

Aladdin’s eyes filled with tears as he asked, “Alibaba-kun, do you really value your life that little-”

Alibaba screamed and then yelled, “Everyone let me speak!  I am not ashamed of this contract, and don’t any of you try to condemn what I have done.  The lives of thousands were on the line, and I refused to sacrifice them, so I sacrificed my own.  I don’t know what any of you would have done in my situation, but I made my choice, and now  _ I _ must live with the consequences of it.” 

“You know, you always do this, Alibaba. You’re always told what your legitimate choices are and then you go off and find some outlandish idea and choose that one rather than the rational choices laid out in front of you,” Sinbad said, his voice sounding sadder by the word.

Ja’far then spoke, “You deserve better than this, Alibaba-kun, you always have–”

“It’s better if it’s me than if it’s my people, Ja’far, you of all people understand that–”

“I’m sorry if I’m not particularly happy with my brother playing the whore to some sick fuck of a vampire,” Kassim spat, keeping his distance from Ja’far; he knew full well the uncomfortable result of clashing with  _ that _ vampire.

Alibaba turned to Kassim and said, “One, Yunan and I haven’t had sex–”

“ _ Do not insult my king _ !” Hakuryuu snarled, launching himself at Kassim with murder in his eyes and placing his spear at his throat.

Kassim grabbed Hakuryuu by the shirt and said, “ _ Your _ king, dhampir?!”

Hakuryuu flushed; he then yelled, “I have a name, you asshat–”

“Hakuryuu, stop pointing the spear at Kassim, I need to ask him something,” Alibaba said, walking toward the feuding pair and turning to Kassim, “You still call me brother?”

“Always, you moron,” Kassim said, sadness in his voice.

Kougyoku stepped up again and said, “So is anyone going to listen to Alibaba-chan’s side of the story or not?”

“Fine, tell your side of the story, Aibou.  I’d like to see what exactly drove you to the biggest mistake of your life.”

\------------------------------

_ Alibaba was finishing the last alterations for a trading agreement with Heliohapt that would make fresh seafood available to Heliohapt’s citizens and linen available to Balbadd’s when the shellphone rang.   _

_ Alibaba picked up the phone and said, “It’s past midnight, Kougyoku, what’s made you call this late?” _

_ “They did it, those fucking bastards did it!” Kougyoku had cried, her voice filled to the brim with tears. _

Oh no _ , Alibaba thought.   _ Not this, anything but this _.  “Kougyoku, what happened?” _

_ “The Kou Empire signed the decree today, no matter how much you, Hakuryuu and I tried to get them to see reason.”  So they had failed, completely and utterly.  Alibaba slumped in his chair and couldn’t say a word.  But he had to, Kougyoku deserved at least that– _

_ “No, they couldn’t have–” _

_ “They did.  Oh Solomon, they’ve signed mine and Hakuryuu’s death warrants!”  Alibaba could hear Kougyoku’s frantic packing from the other side of the phone and hoped beyond anything that Hakuryuu was close by.  He looked at the white feather on his desk next to a contract written largely out of wishful thinking (perhaps not merely wishful anymore), a memento from Yunan after their last meeting–and the idea came to him. _

_ “Not if I have anything to say about this–” _

_ “That’s what I’m telling you, Alibaba-chan!  We don’t have anything to say anymore, we’re dead!” _

_ “Not necessarily.” _

_ “Alibaba-chan?  Do I need to bring Hakuryuu into the conversation, because you have that tone in your voice that indicates that you’re going to do something really stupid–” _

_ “If I can make Balbadd a sanctuary country, the Kou Empire’s dhampirs will be welcome here.  Hide, and flee as soon as you can to Balbadd.  Bring Hakuryuu with you!” _

_ “And how could you do that?” Kougyoku said, pausing at the end of her question; cold realization filled her veins and she could barely hear Alibaba’s “I have the contract at the ready, Kougyoku–” before she cried out, “Absolutely not!  I know Yunan’s been itching for your sunshine blood for ages now, but he can itch for eternity for all I care!” _

_ “I’m not going to just sit here and watch a genocide I can take  _ some _ measure to mitigate.  If it’s the only way to save the people I love most, I’ll do it!” _

_ Kougyoku screamed into the phone, “Call Sinbad!  Call Titus, call Armakan,  _ he _ really seems to like you!  We can make arrangements for the other dhampirs to be housed in those countries as well as Balbadd, and–” _

_ “Then the Kou Empire and Sindria would be at war.  We don’t have that option, Kougyoku.” _

_ “Don’t dismiss my ideas out of hand, Alibaba-chan, you’re acting just like my brothers right now–” _

_ “I’m not dismissing them, Kougyoku, it’s just that contacting Sinbad, and then making the plans to house everyone, is going to take time we don’t have and I’m not going to let one of my very best friends and the love of my life die because there was no place for them!” Alibaba said, his voice cracking with tears. _

_ “Alibaba-chan… please just give me a little more time, we can find another way together–” _

_ Alibaba’s voice grew solemn as he said, “Like you said before, we have nothing to say anymore.  I’m finalizing the contract tonight, Kougyoku.”   _

_ “Alibaba, no–” _

_ Alibaba hung up the phone.   _

_ He then rang up Yunan and said, perhaps wondering if he shouldn’t reconsider this idea, “Yunan, are you here?” _

_ A light voice answered, “Yes, I am.  So I take it you’ve reconsidered my offer?” _

_ Alibaba said as calmly as he could, “Yes, I have, and I’m ready to finalize the blood contract.   _ Tonight _.” _

\-------------------

“What else could I have done?” Alibaba said, now slumped on the throne, “Thousands of people would have died had I not taken the course of action I did.”

“You could have asked Sindria for help in housing the dhampirs, I would have done it!”

Alibaba sat straighter as he said, “And then what, Sinbad?  That  _ alone _ would cause outright war between Sindria and the Kou Empire, and you and I both know it!  Balbadd would have been the first one caught in that crossfire, and I wouldn’t have it!”

Sinbad snapped, “You really think me unable to contain war to where it is deserved?”

“Yes, actually, because nobody in the world could have contained that war to simply Sindria and the Kou Empire, not even you!”

Ja’far stepped in between Alibaba and Sinbad and said, “Calm down, the both of you!”

Sinbad lunged forward and said, “The last promise I made to your father before he died was to protect you, and now I find that for eighteen months, I have completely failed!”

“I made that choice, and I’ve stayed alive for eighteen months!  My country has been alive and well through my efforts and Yunan’s protection for eighteen months.  What do you even have against Yunan anyway?!”

Six months of taunting letters rang through Sinbad’s mind, six months of  _ Alibaba’s mine, he tastes delicious, it’s odd how he came to me instead of you for help, isn’t it, you couldn’t protect Rashid from the darkness depravity brings, and now you’re going to lose Alibaba to it  _ too– “So much, Alibaba.   _ So _ much.”

There were so many unanswered questions behind Sinbad’s words, there always were, but Alibaba couldn’t bring himself to ask them, not when Sinbad looked almost destroyed by his last statement.  Alibaba said quietly, hoping his words would prove more balm than twisted knife, “Sinbad, you can’t protect me forever.”

“I can certainly try.”

Silence reigned for the next five minutes; then, Alibaba said awkwardly, looking at Sinbad with sad eyes, “A storm’s going to come to Balbadd in a couple days and will last a while, so the palace is open for everyone here to stay for the time being.”

Kougyoku began to laugh as the royal guards began to guide some members of the Fanalis Corps and Fog Troupe into their temporary rooms.

“What’s so funny, I’m merely stating that weather’s going to be terrible for travelling this next month so find a place here to stay as soon as you can, and I have way too many rooms here so why not offer them for a while and Hakuryuu back me up on this–” Alibaba pouted, turning to try to find Hakuryuu.

Kougyoku looked at the Fog Troupe, Fanalis Corps and Sindrians in the room and said, turning to Alibaba, “I think the storm’s already here.”

\---------------------

PART 2

The next couple days proved extremely busy for the Fog Troupe and Fanalis Corps as they guided refugees to emergency housing. The Fanalis Corps were particularly focused on integrating their batch of dhampirs into Koutown as soon as they could. 

Kougyoku proved integral to the success of their mission, as she was a frequent visitor to Koutown and therefore knew exactly which buildings were open for people to live in them, as well as the subtle differences between the cultures of Koutown and the Kou Empire. Apparently the dhampirs of the Kou Empire had taken very well to Balbadd’s local culture, and proceeded to integrate it with their own to create an entirely new culture in Koutown. 

Satoshi (the unofficial mayor of Koutown) and his wife Aliya were there with Myron and Kougyoku to give the new dhampirs a tour of Koutown and settle into their homes. Both Myron and Kougyoku had seen the happy couple on various occasions in their times as a member of the Fanalis Corps and the unofficial welcoming committee to Koutown respectively.  As the new dhampirs wandered the busy, sweet-smelling streets with their tour guides and awe in their eyes, Koushi seemed, oddly enough, to follow Kougyoku like a duckling having imprinted on someone; naturally, Myron found it quite hilarious and had to point it out.

“It looks like someone's quite interested in you–”

Kougyoku rolled her eyes and said, “Didn't you tell me five minutes ago about his crush on some Heliohaptan guy, Lani or something–”

“Oh Lavi! He's quite the handful, but if Koushi wants to handle him, who am I to judge?” Myron said flippantly; she looked around, noticed that the dhampirs seemed entirely absorbed by the gorgeous couple guiding them around them, and said, her face flushing, “I know people think me hard for Morgiana to handle too, and some days I think I don't deserve her.”

“Oh, you mean Mor-san?”

“Yes?” Myron raised an eyebrow and asked, “Why do you address her so familiarly–”

Kougyoku continued, not noticing the glare in Myron’s eyes, “She’s been happily prancing around Balbadd City and visiting Alibaba-chan’s other Household Vessels in her new tiger skin cape, and when I asked her where she had gotten it, her face turned bright red and she couldn’t stop smiling!”

Myron’s face turned redder than her hair after that.  She sheepishly replied, “Well, I keep forgetting that in Balbadd, she’s first and foremost Alibaba’s main Household Vessel.  Also, did she really like my gift to her that much?”

“She loves it.  Does that made you happy?” Kougyoku said with a mischievous grin on her face.

“Yes.”

They could hear the tour wrapping up, and Satoshi asked the crowd for any final questions.  Surprisingly enough, Koushi’s hand was the first that came up.

“Koutown’s not just for dhampirs, right?” Koushi said, his still-raised hand trembling slightly and hope laced in his voice.

“I’ve seen quite a few humans move here with dhampir lovers,” Kougyoku said, smiling knowingly and nodding at Satoshi and Aliya. The couple then decided to talk to Koushi about their marriage, and Kougyoku happily ruminated that her duckling had finally found new parents to follow. She left with Myron to the sound of Koushi asking about the mark on Aliya’s neck, a winged black lion. 

Once Myron and Kougyoku walked a good way’s outside of Koutown, Myron asked, “You understand the weight of a blood contract, yes?”

Kougyoku sighed. She motioned to the town they left and said, “I do. I never wanted this contract for him, but I can't deny that I’m only alive because of it. The same applies to everyone in that town, you know, and they’re equally aware of it. They utterly adore Alibaba-chan there.”

Myron said, turning to Kougyoku, “About half of the Fanalis Corps consists of former blood slaves, so to hear that Alibaba’s willingly placing himself in such a wretched condition for his country's sake… it sickens me.”

Kougyoku piped, “But it doesn’t have to be degradation, Myron.  Sinbad and Ja’far have a blood contract as well, and they’ve always treated each other like equals, and blood contracts between dhampirs and humans are far more equitable by their nature than–”

Myron sighed and said, rubbing her temple with her hand, “Ja’far is also Sinbad’s Household Vessel; the two contracts cancel the inherent power dynamics in each of them out.  Alibaba’s not nearly so lucky, and he looked peaky as fuck yesterday.  The Fanalis Corps has dealt with Yunan before; that he’s a bit of an oddball is an understatement, but I never thought he’d do something like this.”

“What do you mean?”

Myron said, “It’s a very long, complicated story I don’t know if I’d even be able to tell correctly.  I’d ask Kassim about it if I were you.”

\-------------------

The Fog Troupe found themselves greeted as victorious heroes by the people of the slums when they arrived with the newest batch of former blood slaves.  Zaynab and Hassan dealt with the established locals while Kassim, Mariam and Aladdin made their way to the most recently built makeshift homes in the slums with their refugees.

Kassim found a wooden box and stood atop it, saying to the crowd of refugees, “These are a temporary home for you until you can find other places to stay or you establish a more permanent place here in the slums.  The slums are a bit rough around the edges, though much better now than before, I know, we’ve all lived here, but if you can carve your place, you’ll find no better home.”

The refugees talked among themselves as Kassim dismissed them and they began to move their possessions into their new homes, and Mariam and Aladdin spent most of the day ensuring that they were comfortably housed by day’s end.

Kassim found himself following Patina and Lavi, who had, upon being dismissed, immediately dashed away from the slums and attempted to go into the marketplace.

“Aren’t you going to talk with your new neighbors?” he said, grabbing both of them by the arm.

“Neither of us is planning on staying there long,” Patina said, shrugging as she once again tried to make her way to the marketplace, “I’m hoping to earn myself a job as a royal accountant in Balbadd’s royal palace, and Lavi’s hoping to live with his  _ boyfriend _ in Koutown–”

“ _ Patina that was a secret! _ ” Lavi shouted, a crimson blush on his face.  He them turned to Kassim and said, “Do you think Koushi would be allowed to live with me, if we were to live in the slums instead?”

Kassim sighed; the kid was obviously lovestruck.  He wasn’t entirely comfortable with the idea himself, but Lavi looked so ridiculously determined,  _ almost like Aibou _ , his traitorous mind added, that he couldn’t quite bring himself to say no.  “I’ve seen dhampirs and humans live together without any problems, so I don’t see why not.”  The massive grins on Lavi’s and Patina’s face were almost worth his annoyed concession.   _ Almost _ .

\---------------------

The day ended, and Mariam and Aladdin grabbed dinner at the restaurant Zaynab and Hassan had ran before they became vampire slayers.  As they happily ate muhammara, Mariam ranted, “Kassim is ridiculous sometimes, he goes on all these adventures without me and thinks he can hold in all these secrets and not fucking explode and I hate it so much, I hate that he won’t talk to me!”

Aladdin nodded in agreement, saying, “I get it, I really do. I haven't properly talked to Alibaba in  _ years _ . I suppose that I brought it on myself, though.”  

Mariam raised an eyebrow, beckoning him to continue, and he did, saying, “There's a lot I missed while I was at Magnostadt Academy, and it's becoming clearer every day just how much. I went there to become a better Magi that could protect everyone, and especially Alibaba-kun, but it feels as though I’ve been neglecting my duties instead.”

“Aladdin you really couldn’t have known–”

“That Alibaba-kun would be so desperate for help that he turned to  _ another Magi _ instead of me because I wasn’t there for him?!  Do you know how terrible that feels?!”

“No, Aladdin, I don’t!  There’s not much I know about  _ any _ of this magical stuff,” Mariam said, “At least Alibaba’s asking people to help him, Kassim’s going to get himself killed before he asks anyone for help and that kills me!”

“You know, I never stopped thinking about you, Mariam,” Aladdin said suddenly, “I never stopped missing you.”

Marian reeled at the change of subject and deadpanned, “Really.”

“Yes, really!  Did you really think I would?” Aladdin said, almost sounding hurt.

“Yes,” Mariam said, finishing off the muhammara and placing an order in for awamat, “There’s so much I don’t understand about your life, so much I never will understand about your life, and it honestly sucks.”

“You don’t think I think the same thing about you?”

Mariam shrugged and said, “What’s there to understand about my life?  I was raised in the slums, became a vampire slayer and now my days are spent delivering refugees to the only country in the world safe for them.”

Aladdin piped in, “There are other countries safe for them, Mariam.  Heliohapt, Koga and Artemyura are particularly ready for any refugees you can deliver–”

“I mean the only country comfortable enough accepting help from  _ vampire slayers _ .  Most countries are vampire-friendly enough to not want to associate themselves with vampire slayers, Aladdin,” Mariam said, a fond chuckle in her voice now, “And yeah, I know most vampires aren’t assholes like Jamil, but we spend our lives killing the ones that are.  It makes it a little harder for us to deal with the ones that aren’t, unfortunately.”

The subject once again abruptly changed as Mariam took a bite of awamat and Aladdin said, “I’m scared for Alibaba-kun, Mariam.  Something’s off with this blood contract, but I can’t tell what it is.  I need your help.  Can you do that?”

Mariam nodded, and then gave him a small kiss on the cheek, saying, “Yeah, I can do that.”

\---------------------

Kassim could do this. He really could. He had faced down hordes of vampires high off the taste of their freshly murdered victims, he’d kept his head when faced with the possibility of vampire tigers eating some of the refugees he’d saved (he’d also learned to silently accept that he couldn't save them all), hell, he’d even slain his newly-turned father after he tried to attack Mariam. 

So why the fuck did the thought of confronting this ridiculously overdressed Kou Empire princess of a dhampir make his stomach reel in fluttering terror?

After a good two minutes of composing himself, he opened the door to the study where Kougyoku was resting and said, hoping she'd hear him, “For Aibou’s sake, we need to make peace.”

“I can smell you from here,” Kougyoku said; he could barely see her pinching her nose and waving her hand in front of her face over all the books she had hoarded around her.

“Don’t you mean a member of the Fog Troupe?” Kassim said, trying to deflect while walking deeper into the study.

“No, you specifically,” Kougyoku said, and Kassim found himself almost blushing ( _ the others must never know _ , he thought immediately afterward) before she added, “You somehow manage to smell worse than any of the others combined.”

Kassim could see her fully now, and he said, “You rude little…”

“I just have to spray this perfume in order to cover up your  _ outrageous _ smell,” Kougyoku said, and if there was a hint of teasing to her voice, Kassim certainly didn’t register it.

“Okay, other than my apparently terrible smell, is there anything you want to know about me?  You know, considering I’m your best friend’s brother and all?”

“Maybe,” Kougyoku said, a genuine smile on her face as she patted the spot next to her and beckoned Kassim to sit.  “I’ll have to spray this once an hour to make sure I don’t throw up, though.”

“Rude,” Kassim said, at last making himself comfortable next to her, “Also, you know your brother and Alibaba’s brother are banging each other every time Koumei finds the time to visit, right?”

“You mean Koumei and Sahbmad?!”   _ That would certainly explain a lot _ , Kougyoku thought to herself.

“Yep!”

And the first of many conversations began.

\---------------------

“There's something Alibaba’s hiding,” Sinbad said, pacing a near literal hole into the floor of his room.

“Sinbad, we’ve gone over this a thousand times,” Ja’far said.  “You can’t just interfere with Alibaba’s life because he’s Rashid’s son.  He’s the king of an allied country, Sinbad, you have to take that into account!”

“He’s also in greater danger than he’s ever been, Ja’far, even with Al-Thamen’s attempted overthrow of Balbadd’s royalty.  We don’t want to lose anyone else in the royal family.”  Rashid’s willing death for his country was expected, but nobody had quite anticipated Ahbmad sacrificing himself for his two younger brothers that day.  Without that particular act of unexpected nobility, Sinbad doubted that Balbadd could have survived the day.

“If I may interject, do you think Il Ilah could possibly be involved?” Ja’far said, stopping the train of Sinbad’s thoughts and changing its direction.

“That’s exactly what I’m thinking, Ja’far,” Sinbad said, “It certainly explains why Al-Thamen’s been moving from Sindria to Balbadd these past six months.  They’ve practically set camp at Balbadd City’s gates.”

“We will find the evidence we need to confront Alibaba, but for now, your pacing has made you break into a sweat and I am starving,” Ja’far said, pulling Sinbad into his arms and taking a long, deep bite.  Ja’far trembled happily in Sinbad’s arms and said, “Every bit as delicious as I remember you.”

“What am I going to do with you, Ja’far?”

“Love me, listen to me, do your paperwork so you’ll get rewarded by me pounding you into the mattress,” Ja’far said, stroking the mark on Sinbad’s neck.

“Not fair,” Sinbad pouted, “You’re using our blood contract to make me do paperwork, you know I hate it.”

“You’ll live.”

\-------------------------

“You always forget to eat, Sahbmad, it’s not good for you,” Husani said, fretting over him like his mother once had.

“It’s that day today,” Sahbmad said, tentatively eating the beans and rice Husani had brought to him.  It was the anniversary of Ahbmad’s death, and the entire palace knew better than to bother Sahbmad in his yearly day of grief.  Well, the entire palace save for Husani.

“I know, Sahbmad.  Your brother meant the world to you, but I’d suggest not dealing with your grief alone this year,” Husani said, watching Sahbmad slowly but surely finish the bowl.  Once Sahbmad had cleared it, Husani took it from his hands and said, “Maybe call that Kou prince that’s captured your heart?”

“I just might,” Sahbmad said, taking the shellphone from his bedside table and watching Husani leave the room.  He then whispered the incantation needed to reach Koumei, and the phone rang.

“Sahbmad?” a bleary voice said over the hoots of hundreds of pigeons.

“Did I catch you at a bad time, Koumei?”

“No, you called me right on time for me to wake up, unfortunately.  Hopefully my brothers don’t hear us,” Koumei said with surprising gentleness, “I was wondering when I’d get to hear your voice again.”

“Speaking of which, how are Kouen and Kouha?”

“Kouen’s still moping over the fact that Hakuei’s in Koga instead of with him, but as I’ve reminded him every single day, even royal dhampirs were no exception to Empress Gyokuen’s decree.  The two of them have been secretly spiriting away dhampirs to Koga, the only place in the world friendlier to dhampirs than Balbadd–”

Sahbmad raised an eyebrow and said, “Perhaps you shouldn’t be so bold with your brother’s secrets?”

“I’m using Dantalion to keep this call completely safe from prying ears, so I can say what I want,” Koumei said, pigeons hooting even more loudly in the background.

Sahbmad slumped in relief and said, “Oh good.” A solid thirty seconds later, he added, “Today’s the anniversary of Ahbmad’s death, you know. I still miss him so much.  I miss you too, of course.  I know you're staying in the Kou Empire to make sure Judal doesn't overstep with his blood contract with Kouha–”

“Judal’s been such an asshole lately, and Kouha’s been little better,” Koumei said, rubbing his head with his hand.

“I do harbor the suspicion that perhaps Kouha would very much  _ like _ Judal to overstep, you know, the way you’ve overstepped with me, and the reason they’re being assholes is because  _ you _ keep stopping them,” Sahbmad said playfully.

“They’ll be insufferable if I let them do that,” Koumei said fondly, the telltale sound of him laying back down on the bed heard from the other side of the phone.

“Are you trying to back to sleep, Koumei?”

“Nah, I’m trying for something better.  I’ve missed you so much, Sahbmad,” Koumei said, the shifting of clothes suddenly apparent.  Sahbmad gasped as Koumei continued, “I remember when you were just a cherry boy and I had my wicked way with you, your face was so, so red….”

“Koumei, are you sure this line is completely safe?”

“Yes, yes, I’m sure,” Koumei said, and a groan could be heard from the other side of the phone that made Sahbmad shudder and slip under the covers of his own bed.

“You really did make sure I could no longer be a cherry boy by the end of that visit, I remember that time in the garden when I rode you in the moonlight while your hair was sopping wet in the fountain by my room, you looked magnificent then–”

“Fuck, Sahbmad, that night was one of the best times of my life, you were so, so– _ for fuck’s sake, Kouen, can’t you see I’m busy _ ?!”

“GET OFF THE FUCKING PHONE AND GET TO WORK!”

“Uggggghhhhh, I’m sorry, Sahbmad, I’ll call you later,” Koumei grumbled as he hung up the phone.  Sahbmad couldn’t stop laughing until he heard familiar steps and promptly covered himself with his bedsheets.

“Morgiana, what brings you here?”

“Could you help me write a love letter to Myron?” Morgiana asked shyly, holding the parchment and paper out to Sahbmad.

Sahbmad shifted himself so he could sit on the side of the bed and said, “I think I can do that.”

\---------------------

It had to happen sometime; both Mariam and Kassim had been pointedly focusing on anything but that blasted blood contract between Alibaba and Yunan, so when Yunan had made a secret trip to take a drink from Alibaba and he stumbled out of his room with the telltale bite marks on his neck and nearly collapsed into Mariam’s arms… Kassim exploded.

“I’m going to find some way to void that fucking contract,” Kassim had said after Alibaba was put to bed, storming out of the room.

Mariam ran to him, grabbed his arm, and yelled, “Kassim, no!”

Kassim turned to her and screamed, “Why not?! That bastard takes more blood and who knows what else from Alibaba every day!”

“There’s so much on the line here, and if you try to void the contract, who knows who’ll be at risk?” Mariam replied, keeping him from charging back into the room.

Kassim wrenched himself from Mariam’s grasp and said, “I’m not going to apologize for the fact that I don’t want to watch my brother die!”

“You’re not the only one who calls him brother, Kassim!” Mariam screamed.

“Well I’m certainly the only one acting like it!” Kassim said, and Mariam slapped him in the face.  They both paused, Kassim placing a hand on his smarting cheek and Mariam placing her hands on her mouth.

“I don’t think I have anything else to say to you, Mariam,” Kassim said, moving to leave the castle.

“Well I have something to say to you, Kassim!” Mariam said, once again grabbing his arm.  “I’m horrified as hell for him!”

Kassim turned to her and said, “Then why aren’t you helping me stop him?”

“Because our brother will sacrifice himself anyway whether we approve of it or not!” Mariam said, tears in her eyes.  “I don’t know know if Alibaba’s going to last much longer, Kassim, and I don’t want his last memories of us to be of us angry at him.”

“I know,” Kassim said, heartbreak in his eyes.  “It’s terrible and I  _ know _ .”  He then pulled her into a hug, and they wept, wondering what to do.

\---------------------

The following day, the storm was at last beginning to abate, and the first thing Alibaba and Kougyoku wanted to do was make the flower crowns that would come from the blossoms rain brought.  Granted, it was still raining quite a bit, but with a djinn like Vinea, Kougyoku couldn’t resist the chance to pick the finest blooms.  Thus, Alibaba and Kougyoku found themselves soaking wet and picking flowers for the crowns.

“What sort of flowers do you think Kassim would like?” Kougyoku asked with faux-nonchalance, eying the yellow roses and lilies in the corner of the garden.

“Are you interested in my brother?” Alibaba asked, his voice teasing at feigned disapproval.

Kougyoku gave a start and yelled, “I gave my approval for you dating my cousin, Alibaba-chan!”

Alibaba’s smile turned devilish as he said, weaving the roses he had picked into a crown, “But you and Kassim are just so  _ different _ , and Kassim’s blood smells so  _ terrible _ to you I wouldn’t want to saddle you with someone you’d hate smelling for the rest of your life–”

Kougyoku’s face then turned redder than her hair as she explained, “He smells good to me, all right?!  It’s just so embarrassing to admit that I want to jump him and drink his blood every time I see him.  And I don’t want him to think that I only like him because his blood smells delicious, so I–”

“You tell him his blood smells terrible and then when you reveal you like him, he won’t take blood into account?” Alibaba said, his head tilted like a baby deer’s.

“You get it!” Kougyoku chirped happily.  He voice suddenly turned somber when she added, “Kassim told me about the details of your blood contract with Yunan.  I’m worried about you, and what about Hakuryuu, he must have had words about it–”

Alibaba straightened himself out and said, picking up various flowers, “Hakuryuu was concerned about that very thing with us, and honestly I was worried my blood contract with Yunan would change things for the worse.  It didn’t, and just because the dhampir in you likes the smell of him doesn’t mean that it’s the only thing you like about him.”

“You’re not answering the question about your contract with Yunan, Alibaba-chan–”

“And I won’t, Kougyoku, there are some secrets I’d like to keep for myself.  I will address your worries about Kassim, though.  Kassim likes honesty in someone, so please, the next time you talk with him, tell him the truth of how you feel, both about him and about his blood.”

“I think I needed to hear that.  I really should be honest in my affection for him, then,” Kougyoku said, at once relieved and resigned.  She then smiled gently, eying the bright red roses above Alibaba’s head.  She went to pick them up when Alibaba grabbed her hand to stop her.

“Kassim likes daisies,” Alibaba said, handing her three dozen of them that he had picked all the while.

\--------------------

“I need to talk to you, Hakuryuu,” Kassim said, a daisy crown perched on his head.

“To me?” 

“Yes, to you, dhampir,” Kassim said, rolling his eyes.  They walked a few minutes in silence before Kassim asked, “What did you mean when we first met and you said that Alibaba was your king, Hakuryuu?”

“That… is a very long and complicated question to answer,” Hakuryuu said.

“Well, whether I approve of you dating Alibaba or not depends on your answer, so you’d better simplify it real fast,” Kassim said.

Hakuryuu glared at Kassim and said, “The Kou Empire has never been a particularly welcoming place for dhampirs, but since Al Thamen began to infiltrate its ranks, it’s become outright hostile.”

“Nothing I haven’t heard before from other dhampirs here,” Kassim said, shrugging.

“You don’t quite get it, Kassim,” Hakuryuu said, placing his hands on Kassim’s shoulders, “It was my mother’s signature on the decree that ordered the genocide of every dhampir in the Kou Empire.”

Kassim paused then and said, gulping, “Oh… that’s terrible.”

Hakuryuu’s eyes began to fill with tears as he said, “She had two dhampir children and she condemned them to die because her love for Al-Thamen overcame her love for her  _ children _ .”

“My dad tried to eat my sister the moment he got turned into a vampire,” Kassim said, “It didn’t end well, he ended up being the first vampire I ever slew.”

“Do you think I might have the chance to kill my mother?” Hakuryuu asked, his eyes glimmering with bloodlust.

Kassim knew better from letters Alibaba had written to him about Hakuryuu than to poke that particular bear any further, so he asked, “What do you think of Balbadd, then?”

Hakuryuu answered, “Balbadd is the first place where I have ever felt truly at home; its citizens are kind to us, and even though it’s still a work in progress, I feel like I belong here, Kassim, like I am more citizen of Balbadd than I have ever been of the Kou Empire.”

“And by that logic, Alibaba would be the king of the country you’re a citizen of, so therefore he’s your king?” Kassim said, continuing Hakuryuu’s apparent line of logic.

“Precisely!” Hakuryuu said, more happily than anything else he had said previously but still not quite Alibaba’s level of chipper.

Kassim raised an eyebrow and said, “For some reason I doubt that’s the full extent of how much you regard Aibou as yours.”

Hakuryuu glared at Kassim again before conceding, “You’re not wrong, Kassim.  I have lived my life in the rain and he is sunshine.  I adore Alibaba-dono with everything in my being, and for some reason he deigns to love me, he lets me tell the world that he is mine.”

“I don’t think Alibaba  _ deigns _ to do anything,” Kassim said, a small facsimile of a smile curving on his face. “So you and Alibaba have been together for how long and you still won’t outright kiss him?”

“Shut up, I don’t see you doing anything regarding Kougyoku,” Hakuryuu replied, prompting a small blush to cross Kassim’s face; he then pointed at the crown of daisies on Kassim’s head and asked, “Did Kougyoku make that for you?”  Kassim’s surprisingly bright smile and brighter red face told him the answer.  His face got even redder when he and Hakuryuu walked into the room to see Aladdin and Mariam kissing each other.

“Mariam, Aladdin, what are you doing?!” Kassim yelled.

“What you want to do with Kougyoku,” Aladdin said, smirking at them and snuggling into Mariam’s neck.

_ You are such a little shit why does Mariam like you _ , Kassim thought.

“You know what’s really sad?  That Mariam and the tiny magi have gotten more action than either of you,” Hassan said, having suddenly appeared.

Hakuryuu flusteredly said, “Alibaba-dono and I kiss–”

“On the cheek, how  _ scandalous _ . Also, way to throw me under the bus there, Hakuryuu,” Kassim muttered, playfully punching him in the arm right afterward.

“I am not tiny anymore!” Aladdin screamed over them.

“Not helping, Hassan!” Mariam said, a bright blush across her face.

“So Yunan’s here,” Alibaba suddenly said, holding a flower crown of white roses and looking, of all things, to be in a state of complete panic.

Myron said, happily holding a love letter in her hands, “Fucking weirdo–”

“Myron-chan!” Morgiana wailed, running after her girlfriend, “Always with the language.”

Kassim, never quite being able to help himself when it came to people scolding others for language, let out a well placed, “Well  _ fuck _ .”

Yunan descended into the room from the ceiling, looking ethereal as ever before approaching Alibaba with a gentle smile on his face.  “Alibaba-kun, it’s marvelous to see you again,” he said, “I suppose you’ve thought about my recent offer.”

“Yes, I have.  The answer is still no.” Alibaba said, his stance tenser than any of the people in that room had seen him before.

Hakuryuu saw Husani walking to the kitchen with a jug of wine and asked him for a cup of it; Husani, noticing the company, obliged, whispering “You only get one cup, though, I know how you are when drunk, so don’t waste it drinking it all too early in this weird little conversation.”

“I have a gift for you,” Yunan said, and he placed a bronze bracelet with four silver feathers on Alibaba’s left wrist.  “The feathers on this bracelet are fused with my magoi, to remind you who you belong to, Alibaba-kun.”

Yunan then saw the flower crown in Alibaba’s hands and said, “Is that is a gift for me, Alibaba-kun?”

Alibaba blurted out, “No, it’s actually for Hakuryuu–” before Yunan took the white rose crown and jauntily placed it upon his head.  

He then pulled Alibaba close, ruffled his hair with no small amount of affection and placed a kiss on his temple.  “It’s absolutely gorgeous with my hat, I love it.”

“Yunan, I–”

“I know I took blood from you last night, and you need a day to properly recover, so be ready for me tomorrow,” Yunan said matter-of-factly before patting Alibaba on the head and leaving the room.

Alibaba turned away from the people there, an abashed look on his face, and he ran to his bedroom.  Without hesitation, Kassim and Hakuryuu followed him there.

“I swear someone would have been dead if Yunan played with Alibaba’s hair a second longer,” Kassim said, noting the now-broken cup in Hakuryuu’s hand.  He then turned to Alibaba and asked, “Has Yunan been like this the whole time?”

Alibaba tensed and said, “No, it’s only been the last six months that he’s been doing this.”

Hakuryuu asked, “Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure!” Alibaba said.  He plopped himself onto his bed and glared at both Kassim and Hakuryuu.

Kassim added, “Because if this has been an ongoing thing throughout this contract, you do realize–”

 

“Realize what?  That I fucked up, that I really don’t have a choice in the matter anymore?  Is that what you want me to say?!” Alibaba yelled, clutching the bedpost, “Because I don’t have a way out of this, I have to see this through or else thousands of people are fucked and  _ I can’t do that to them! _ ”

“You’re a lot more scared than you’ve been letting on, aren’t you?” Hakuryuu blurted out, and much to everyone in the room’s surprise, Alibaba stilled.  

A dark look emerged in his eyes, and he snapped, “Just leave me alone for a while.”

Hakuryuu stood his ground and said, “Alibaba-dono, you need to talk about this to–”

“I’m going to go to bed and deal with this in the morning, because I really can’t deal with it  _ now _ ,” Alibaba said, kicking both Kassim and Hakuryuu out of the room, slamming the door and huffing his way into bed.  Sleep didn’t come easily to Alibaba that night, and when it did….

_ Alibaba was running through the palace, trying to find some place to hide, anywhere would work, from Yunan, his eyes red with bloodlust and perhaps something else entirely. _

_ “Somebody help me!” he cried out tripping over his robes and struggling to pick himself back up. _

_ A voice, familiar yet not quite distinguishable, yelled in return, “You’ve spent eighteen months making your bed, now lay in it!” _

_ “What did you  _ think _ would happen when you made a blood contract with a vampiric Magi?” _

_ Alibaba yelled into the void, “There’s something wrong with Yunan, I know it!  He wouldn’t act this way!” _

_ “You’re simply in denial, trying to justify your horrible decisions.” _

_ “Do you really think what you’ve done has actually helped anyone in the long run?!” _

_ Oh Solomon he was cornered, there was nowhere to turn he was going to get turned into a vampire and ruin everything he had worked for– _

_ “Oh Alibaba, you silly tender-hearted creature, thinking you could save the world with your puny little sacrifice.”  The voice, otherworldly and distinguishably familiar this time, said, and flashes of an earlier battle rang in Alibaba’s head moments at a time.    _

_ “You… oh Solomon, it can’t be YOU!” Alibaba cried out, slinking ever downward on the wall behind him, for what he saw before him was none other than Il Ilah in the flesh. _

_ “Nobody’s going to believe you, you know,” Il Ilah said, snaking its tentacles around Alibaba’s arms, his legs.  “Everyone thinks Yunan’s behavior is the inevitable result of the blood contract you made, and now I get to do whatever I want with you.”  _

_ Oh Solomon it felt like it was trying to squeeze his arms and legs off and it hurt so much– _

_ “You shine so  _ brightly _ ,” Il Ilah hissed, pressing itself against Alibaba far too intimately for comfort, “Too brightly, in fact, and you must be snuffed out.” _

_ And then he feels tentacles wrapping around his throat and squeezing, squeezing until he can barely breathe and he bites any tentacles trying to get into his mouth away but they just keep coming and he cannot stop screaming– _

“ALIBABA-DONO WAKE UP!” he could hear through the dark haze, and his mind grabbed onto that voice, held onto that gentle sound for dear life, and–Alibaba woke up with a shuddering gasp.

“I’m here, Alibaba-dono,” Hakuryuu said, gathering him into his arms and stroking his hair.

“Don’t leave me, please don’t leave me alone tonight,” Alibaba said, crying into Hakuryuu’s robes.

“I’d never,” Hakuryuu said, pulling Alibaba even closer.  A few minutes later, after Alibaba had noticeably calmed down, he said, “Talk to Aladdin about this.”

Alibaba sleepily protested, “He’s fifteen, Hakuryuu-”

“And he was ten when he and you freed Morgiana from blood slavery,” Hakuryuu said gently, knowing it to be a last-resort argument from an exhausted man.

“I’ll talk to him after I get some more sleep in me, all right?”

“I’ll hold you to it, Alibaba,” Hakuryuu said, kissing his forehead, and Alibaba smiled.

\---------------------

The next morning after breakfast, Alibaba approached Aladdin and said, “I need to talk to you.”

“Alibaba-kun?”

Alibaba bounced from foot to foot as he said, “I know it’s been some time since we’ve actually talked one on one with each other and I figured we could do that again, heck, maybe we could even visit a brothel like old times–”

“I don’t think either of us is genuinely interested in doing that anymore,” Aladdin said, rubbing the back of his head.  “Want to talk in your room?”

“That’d be great!”

Mariam heard Alibaba and Aladdin’s conversation, and she dashed to where Hakuryuu had been finishing his breakfast and said, “You’re coming with me.”  She then dragged Hakuryuu with her, utilizing the shortcut she had remembered to get to Alibaba’s room before him and Aladdin, and shoved both him and herself into the closet.

“Now you and I are going to be quiet so we can hear what’s going on, alright?” Mariam hissed at Hakuryuu, and he thought to himself that his future sister-in-law was terrifying.

Aladdin and Alibaba stepped into the room, and Alibaba said, “The contract with Yunan’s getting to be more than I can handle, and I don’t know what to do.  I’ve failed everyone, Aladdin–”

“You’ve failed nobody, Alibaba-kun.”

“But the protection Yunan’s giving Balbadd is conditional on my giving blood to him,” Alibaba said, “And I can’t do that if I’m dead.”

Hakuryuu gave a start and said, “What do you mean Alibaba-dono can’t do that if he’s dead–”

“Hakuryuu, shut up or I will make you shut up–” Mariam said, placing a hand over Hakuryuu’s mouth.

“Alibaba-kun?” Aladdin looked over at the closet and wondered at the noise in there.  Perhaps it was merely bumps in the morning, but if it was who Aladdin thought it was… then perhaps it was for the best that he and Alibaba continue talking.

Alibaba sighed, clutching the blanket in his hand, and said, “I’m not going to last the year, Aladdin.  I need to find a way for this contract after I die, so that Balbadd and everyone in it will be safe–”

“Or how about you stay alive instead?” Aladdin said, his voice getting angrier with each word as he stood over Alibaba, “Why are you so insistent on placing absolutely no value on your life, you’ve completely disregarded everyone who loves you, let alone our connection as King and Magi because you can’t stop hating yourself long enough to see any reason at all!”

Alibaba flinched and withered under his gaze, and just as Aladdin was about to apologize, he said, “I don’t want to be a vampire, Aladdin....”

Aladdin could feel his stomach drop as low as it could go as he asked, “Huh?”

Alibaba bit his lip, eyes darting around the room as he tried to come up with the words he needed.  “Yunan asked me if he could turn me into one, in fact he’s been asking for the last couple weeks now, actually tried it the day before yesterday when I told him no–”

“This is worse than I thought–” Hakuryuu said, his fists clenched at his sides.

“Be quiet, we’re supposed to be eavesdropping, you suck at this!” Mariam said, elbowing Hakuryuu in the side with her free hand.

“OW!”

Alibaba continued, “There’s something wrong with Yunan and I can’t figure out what it is.  It’s killing me, Aladdin.  And I….” Alibaba started to shake and pull the blanket to cover himself, ashamed of how childish he must have looked to Aladdin.

“Talk to me, Alibaba-kun.”

“I had a nightmare last night.  Il Ilah was there and it tried to kill me, it kept talking about how nobody’s ever going to believe me and it’s going to snuff me out like–”

“Il Ilah is wrong because  _ I _ believe you,” Aladdin said, pulling Alibaba into a hug.  “You’ve told me time and time again that we’ll face whatever obstacles are set before us together, and that is exactly what we’re going to do.”

A bright rainbow bird suddenly flew from the window, and Alibaba gave a start as he watched it fly away.  “Is that Sinbad’s–”

The door flew open, and Yunan walked into the room, blood covering his robes.  His eyes were glassy with bloodlust, and three words signaled its cause. “Al-Thamen is here.”

\---------------------

Almost as if Yunan's words had summoned them, Al-Thamen struck at Balbadd City’s outer gate, and about twenty of Al-Thamen’s fiercest vampires began to filter their way into the city.  They proved themselves heavily armed, and the screams of Balbadd City’s unluckiest civilians could be heard from the other side of town.

“Fanalis Corps, get the citizens to safety now!” Muu shouted, and most of the members of the Fanalis Corps ran toward the citizens of Balbadd City and began to guide them underground. Myron, however, froze on the battlefield; Morgiana dashed toward her, because her Myron-chan never froze in battle, not like this.

“Myr-chan, what’s wrong?!” Morgiana asked, guiding some civilians along.

Myron tensed and cried, “He’s here, he’s here, why the fuck is he here?!”

Morgiana knew full well that only one creature in the world could cause Myron Alexius to sound so scared; fucking  _ Lorant _ .

Speaking of the devil, Lorant saw Myron, knocked Morgiana aside, and immediately charged for her, pinning her to the ground after a solid minute of her trying to fight him off.  He tilted her head back and began to lick the vein on her neck, whispering, “Oh, Myr-chan, I’ve missed you and your pretty fearful face so much.  You’ve always been my favorite little blood slave, and now I get you all to myself again–”

Morgiana pounced on Lorant like a tiger on the hunt and kicked him squarely in the face.  The chains from her Household Vessel wrapped around Lorant’s arms and legs, and with a vicious “AMOL SELSELLA!” Morgiana had quartered the vampire.

“You… did you just rip that vampire into pieces with your Household Vessel, Mor-san?!” Alibaba (who had just arrived onto the battlefield) asked, terror and awe in his voice.

“He tried to hurt Myr-chan, so I used what I had on me,” Morgiana said in reply.  She then scooped Myron into her arms and carried her to safety.

Alibaba watched Morgiana leave with Myron and said to no one in particular, “Good to know.”

\-------------------

As Hakuryuu pushed aside vampire after vampire using Zagan’s vines, he wondered if he would find himself confronting his mother in this battle, if he’d have to make the killing blow. He could feel the bloodlust begin to consume him, and as the fight progressed, Zagan’s vines and Hakuryuu's glaive found themselves covered with more and more blood. He let himself revel in it for a while until a terrible sight sent it all crashing down. 

A member of Al-Thamen, Hakuryuu didn't care which, raised a magnificently large sword over his head and aimed for Alibaba, who was covering Marian and Hassan on the other side of the battlefield. 

Hakuryuu ran more quickly than he ever had in his life and pushed Alibaba out of the way; he took the full hit and felt his arm being severed from his body.  His mind went blank as he saw it fall to the ground and found himself stumbling there along with it.   _ At least Alibaba will be safe from this creature, at least he’ll live to see another day _ , Hakuryuu thought as he closed his eyes and knew no more. 

\-------------------

Kougyoku stumbled deliriously through the battlefield, having killed several members of Al-Thamen with Vinea before a vampire somehow managed to drink enough of her blood to remove her djinn equip.  She spotted Kassim directing the other members of the Fog Troupe and ran to him, and as she fell into his arms, he didn’t want to think of what might have happened had he not caught her.

Kougyoku tried to get up, saying to Kassim, “I need to get back there, Hakuryuu’s going to die if I don’t–”

Kassim placed a small pill into his mouth and said, “You need to stay here and recover.”

“But  _ Hakuryuu– _ ”

“At least drink something before you fling yourself back into battle!” Kassim then found a small, safe corner of the battlefield and carried Kougyoku there.

Kougyoku growled at Kassim before snapping, “There’s nobody here that smells good enough to drink!”

“I was thinking water, but if you’re that out of sorts, drink my blood, it’s right here!” Kassim yelled, using a knife to cut open his wrist. 

“Oh hell no!” Kougyoku said, biting her lip and trying her hardest to look away from the bleeding cut.

“I know my blood smells like shit, but dammit, it’s the only blood we have right now so drink!” Kassim said, shocked to find tears falling down his face as he pressed his wrist to Kougyoku’s lips.

“You’re serious?” She looked up at him, her hands trembling as they cradled his bleeding wrist.  “You really want me to drink your blood?” 

“Yes,” Kassim said, and with that Kougyoku bit, drinking long and deep and with a sigh Kassim could almost mistake for bliss.  She pulled him closer and drank more, and Kassim found himself almost getting woozy before she pulled back.

“All right, your blood still smells like shit but you  _ taste _ delicious,” Kougyoku said, laughing as she took another sip.  “Actually to be honest your blood never smelled like shit, I just said that because I was embarrassed.”

“Embarrassed by what?”

“How much I liked it, the way you smell.” 

Kassim’s face turned bright red (for a second, Kougyoku feared that might have taken up all of his remaining blood, but he somehow managed to remain kneeling) before he changed the subject and said, “You know that blood can be altered to effect the vampires who drink it, right?”

“You didn’t!” Kougyoku said, comprehension dawning on her face as she began to feel the sleeping pill take effect on her.

“You need to rest, Kougyoku, so yes, I did,” Kassim said, beginning to stroke her bloodied hair.

“You asshole,” Kougyoku said as she found herself falling asleep in Kassim’s arms.

\---------------------

Sinbad and Ja’far fought side by side, Ja’far’s blades and Sinbad’s ever-changing djinn equips causing Al-Thamen’s ranks to be decimated by the minute.  However, Sinbad could spot a fluttering figure descending down amid a flurry of black rukh and silken robes: Ren Gyokuen was here.

“So there’s the Kou Empire’s witch,” Ja’far said, his fangs at the ready.  

“You will not stop us from reuniting with our father!” Gyokuen shouted, her fangs out as well, and she unleashed her Borg.  Ja’far jumped at her, and Borg versus assassin’s knives clashed until one moment of vulnerability on Ja’far’s part prompted Gyokuen to get the better of him and knock him to the ground.

As she prepared to finish him, Sinbad shifted djinn equips once more to that of Zepar’s.  He jumped in front of a fallen Ja’far and used his djinn equip’s scream to command her to go to sleep, only to find that a shadow of a woman had fled Gyokuen’s body, and Gyokuen herself had fallen to the ground.  She then tried to stumble to her feet but was beaten to her feet by Ja’far and met with his blade at her throat.

“Have you seen my children?” Gyokuen said, her eyes bright and... clear?   _ What is she playing at? _ Ja’far thought, keeping the knife steady and Gyokuen away from Sinbad, who busied himself with shifting back into Baal’s djinn equip and fighting two more members of Al-Thamen at once.

“Hakuryuu!  Hakuei!” Gyokuen cried out, reaching for Sinbad and distracting him just enough that he was struck in the arm by a member of Al-Thamen, “Where are you?!”

Ja’far pressed the blade further against Gyokuen’s throat and snarled, “I don’t know what mercy you think you’ll get from Sinbad, but you’ll receive none from me–”

“Ja’far, don't!” Aladdin said, placing himself between the two vampires. “Gyokuen has no clue what's happening now, and if you kill her, you might be killing the only person we’ve captured with any information on Il Ilah!”

“So Il Ilah  _ is _ involved, then?!”

“Yes, Ja’far, and we need to find out its plans as soon as possible.  Alibaba’s life depends on it,” Aladdin said.  

“I believe you, for now.  Don’t make us regret this decision, Aladdin,” Ja’far said, running back to help Sinbad fight off more of Al-Thamen’s cohort.

“We will bring you to your children if you come with us and answer Uncle Sinbad’s questions, all right?” Aladdin said, taking Gyokuen’s hand and guiding her to safety. 

\---------------------

Alibaba stumbled across the battlefield, carrying a bleeding Hakuryuu in his arms and thinking to himself,  _ How could Hakuryuu have done that?!  Doesn’t he value his life at all?!   _ Before his errant mind could chide him for hypocrisy, he said,  “Hakuryuu, look at me, I’m here, we’re going to get you off this battlefield, just keep your eyes open for me, all right?”

“Alibaba-dono….”

Alibaba heard Hakuryuu’s voice and said, tears running down his face, “Why did you do that, Hakuryuu, you shouldn't have risked you life for me–”

Hakuryuu rasped, a hand tracing Alibaba’s face, “My life is disposable, yours isn’t–”

Alibaba yelled, “That’s bullshit, Hakuryuu!  You are not disposable and I’m not going to let you die!”

“You might just have to,” Hakuryuu said, beginning to close his eyes. 

Alibaba fell on his knees and begged, “No I don't, Hakuryuu don't you dare close your eyes right now, Hakuryuu, please stay with me I love you….”

“Zagan for the love of Solomon  _ help your fucking King candidate _ !” Alibaba yelled at Hakuryuu’s glaive, tempted to simply bash it on the ground until Zagan came out, “Please don’t let him die here.”

“Feisty, feisty,” Zagan said as he left the glaive, grabbed Hakuryuu’s left shoulder and began to craft an arm made of branches and flowers.

Alibaba unthinkingly took his knife and made a cut to his arm, placing the bleeding cut near Hakuryuu's face and hoping Hakuryuu would get aware enough of it to drink. 

Yunan floated from the sky toward Alibaba and Hakuryuu, and he placed himself between the two of them, saying, “Alibaba-kun, what are you doing?”

“I’m saving Hakuryuu’s life.”

“It appears as though you’re trying to give him what belongs to only me, Alibaba-kun,” Yunan said, immediately utterly a spell to heal the cut Alibaba had made.

“Hakuryuu will die if I don’t give him my blood!” Alibaba cried, holding Hakuryuu’s head in his lap and pressing any cloth he could find to the wound at his side, the almost-completed new arm absorbing too much blood..

“Why should I care?” Yunan said, shrugging and creating a borg around the three of them, thus ensuring nobody would interrupt them. 

“Because he’s the love of my–you know what, fuck it, I don't have to explain myself to you, Yunan, I’m giving him my blood anyway!”

“You give Hakuryuu your blood, and your life is forfeit to me,” Yunan said, trying to pull Alibaba up and away from Hakuryuu.

“Well then,” Alibaba said, pushing himself away from Yunan, cutting his arm once more and placing the wound to Hakuryuu’s lips, “It is forfeit.”

Alibaba tapped Hakuryuu’s face and said, placing his bleeding arm near Hakuryuu’s lips, “Hakuryuu, look at me, I need you to look at me right now.”

“Alibaba-dono? What are you doing?!”

“You’re gonna be alright,” Alibaba said, “Drink.”

And with that, the gasp of a dying man, Hakuryuu latched down and drank. A long, precious minute of the taste of sunshine later, Yunan pulled Alibaba away from him and then used his staff to knock Alibaba out. 

“ALIBABA!” Hakuryuu cried out, his right arm unconsciously tracing the arm Zagan had created for him.  He then turned to Yunan and yelled, “Let him go!”

“He broke our contract to save your life, and now he’s simply accepting the natural consequence of his actions,” Yunan said, lifting the now-unconscious Alibaba into his arms and viciously biting his neck; a minute later, he pulled away for a moment and added, glaring at Hakuryuu, “If you have any respect for the man you claim to love, you would too.”

Was it just the product of Hakuryuu’s delirious imagination, or had Yunan’s eyes turned black? “Where are you taking him?”

“To meet his destiny, little dhampir,” Yunan said; was it just Hakuryuu’s mind playing games with him, or did Yunan's voice seem… different?

“You’re making no sense, Yunan!”

“You should be happy for my Alibaba. His purpose in life will finally be fulfilled,” Yunan, or, if Hakuryuu were being honest with himself, whatever strange creature was wearing Yunan’s skin, said tauntingly, “And Yunan is dead, you silly boy.”

Hakuryuu felt his blood run cold.

\---------------------

PART 3

The room was deadly silent as Hakuryuu relayed the terrible news to everyone in the war room: Yunan, or something wearing Yunan’s skin, had kidnapped Alibaba, fully intending to keep him for his nefarious purposes. 

“Alibaba gave me his blood to save my life, and then Yunan wrenched him away from me right afterward,” Hakuryuu said.  The cloth he had used to wipe away his tears was sopping wet, and he didn’t bother to ask Aladdin to dry it.  He supposed he deserved at least this bit of small discomfort.

“You mean to tell me that he violated the contract for you?” Ja’far said, his tone monotone but his eyes mournful, “I don’t know if we’re going to see Alibaba alive again, then.”

“What?!” Kassim, Morgiana, Aladdin and Mariam all shouted.

Kougyoku asked, fidgeting with the hairpin in her hands, “So since Il Ilah might be involved here, what exactly is its intent?”

Sinbad answered, “Ja’far and I have been searching all over for that answer, and we actually found your mother, Hakuryuu, who proved far more willing to reveal Al-Thamen’s plans than we anticipated.”

Hakuryuu, shocked by the revelation, said, “And those plans are?”

Sinbad answered, “Il Ilah would possess someone with magical power, ideally a vampire.  Then he’d find a King candidate with at least one djinn and somehow turn them into a vampire, which also explains why Ja’far won’t turn me despite me asking him to do so at least once a week.”

“You’re already insufferable enough as a human, Sinbad, Solomon knows what’d happen with you as a vampire,” Ja’far said, shaking his head. 

“Rude,” Sinbad said before kissing Ja’far on the cheek anyway.  “Back to the subject at hand.  Who is Il Ilah possessing?  I had guessed either Kouen or Judal for the longest time–”

“It’s Yunan,” Aladdin said with finality that nobody else in the room but Hakuryuu anticipated.

Sinbad asked, “Defend your argument.”

Hakuryuu looked askance at him; wasn't his account of Yunan's kidnapping of Alibaba enough?!

“Alibaba talked to me yesterday about nightmares he had of Il Ilah attacking him, of Il Ilah talking about how he’s using the blood contract to make Yunan turn Alibaba into a vampire,” Aladdin said, fiddling with his staff and looking anywhere but at anyone’s eyes.  He didn’t want to see the looks of judgement, the implied  _ You failed your King _ in their eyes.

Ja’far said, “Well, that’s something.”  

“It certainly explains the letters I’ve been getting from Yunan these past six months,” Sinbad said, revealing a small box stuffed with parchments full of hateful writing.

Myron said, slumping in her seat, “So Yunan’s being possessed by Il Ilah.  What do we do about it?”

“We have a lot to think about on that front, don’t we?” Sinbad said, death in his eyes; the whole room certainly knew his opinion on the matter.

\---------------

“May I talk with my mother before we leave to rescue Alibaba?” Hakuryuu said to Aladdin.

“I think we have time to do that.  We don’t have long, of course, but if you can keep it to under an hour, I think we’re good.”

“I can do that.”  With that, Hakuryuu walked into the interrogation room to see his mother, to truly see her, for the first time in over a decade. 

Gyokuen sat up, her eyes widened, and she said, shocked to the very core, “Hakuryuu?!  You’ve gotten so big!  And there’s a scar on your face, did I really do that to you?!”

Hakuryuu paused at the threshold; so Empress Gyokuen Ren, no, his mother, hadn't remembered much of her past thirteen years after all. 

“ _ Mother _ ?” Hakuryuu said, far more shaken than he thought he would be.

Gyokuen motioned for him to sit across the way from her, and she said forlornly, “I’ve been told by Sinbad and Ja’far what I’ve done for the past...  _ thirteen years _ .  I can’t believe I missed so much of your and Hakuei’s lives.  Has she married yet?”

“So it’s true, then,” Hakuryuu said, trying to register the full weight of what she said.  “You really were possessed by a minion of Il Ilah all this time?”

“That doesn’t excuse what I’ve done to my country, Hakuryuu.  I should have fought Arba more than I did–”

As the demon’s name left her lips, Hakuryuu suddenly snapped, “Did you join Al-Thamen before Arba possessed you?”

Gyokuen gave a start and said, “No.  Is this my interrogation?”

“Yes, Mother, it is,” Hakuryuu said, getting up from his seat and walking around the table.  An uncomfortable minute later, he asked, “Would you have done any of this had Arba not possessed you?”

“No.”

A few more tense minutes later, Hakuryuu stood behind her, placed his hands on either side of Gyokuen’s chair, and asked, “Finally, do you love me?  Do you love Hakuei, Hakuyuu and Hakuren too?”

Gyokuen’s eyes filled with tears as she remembered Arba’s hands forcing her to kill her two older children; she couldn’t take the chance of being forced to kill Hakuryuu too.  “ _ Always _ .  But do I  _ deserve _ a son like you or a daughter like Hakuei?   _ No _ .”

\-------------------

“So, can anyone explain to me why I’m  _ not _ part of the rescue mission?” Sinbad said, glowering at the group in front of him. 

Aladdin said, trying to weigh his words as delicately as possible, “We don’t know how long we’ll take to rescue him, Sinbad, and if Al-Thamen attacks Balbadd, Alibaba trusts you more than anybody else in the world to defend his kingdom while we're gone.”

“He certainly didn’t trust me enough to not create a blood contract–”

“Sinbad now is not the time!” Ja’far said.  “I’m not fond of the idea either, but they’re right.  You’re like a father to Alibaba, and he would want  _ you _ defending his country rather than leaving it at risk to rescue him.”

“I guess so,” Sinbad conceded.  “So, how are you going to find him anyway?”

“I placed a tracking spell on Alibaba-kun’s rope a long time ago.  He never takes it off, really, so it’s guaranteed to bring us to him,” Aladdin said; with that, he activated the spell, and a small yellow light shone in front of them and began to fly away.  Thus, Aladdin, Mariam, Kassim, Hakuryuu, Kougyoku, Morgiana and Myron set out of the royal palace and followed the signal the rope was giving them. 

\---------------------

Alibaba woke up to find himself tied up with black ropes and Yunan hovering over him, his eyes pitch black instead of their usual blue.  He desperately fought his bindings to say, “Yunan, listen to me.  Il Ilah is possessing you, and I need you to fight him.”

The creature above him laughed, saying, “Yunan is dead, King Alibaba Saluja.  Accept that fact and your fate as well.”

Alibaba snarled, “I’m not giving up on you!  No matter what I have to do, I’ll bring you back!”

“Oh, Alibaba, you’re trying so hard to complete a fool’s errand, and I almost feel sorry for you,” the creature said, beginning to stroke his face.

Alibaba scooted toward Yunan and said, even going so far as to try to wave around the bracelet on his wrist, “Yunan, please, listen to me, I can help you, tell me what I need to do to get you back!”

Il Ilah smiled viciously and let Yunan out for a second for him to say, “Alibaba, do what you can and run away!  Don’t try to save me, it’s too late–ahhhhhhhhh!”

“Oh, what Yunan meant to say is that he’s so, so thirsty and he really needs all the strength he can get to protect your sweet little country, so won’t you help a poor Magi and let him drink your sunshine blood?” Il Ilah said, its voice a cruel mockery of Yunan’s own.  If Alibaba were quiet, he swore he could almost hear Yunan crying from within his own body.

Alibaba looked at Il Ilah with a new and visceral horror as he slumped in his bindings and exposed his neck.  “Fine.  If you must, Yunan,  _ drink _ .”

And with that Yunan bit.

\------------------

“The signal on Alibaba’s rope is leading us to this cave on the outskirts of Balbadd City,” Aladdin said, leading the way and flying his carpet at a quicker pace than any of them had ever seen before. 

The cave in daytime certainly didn't appear to be a frightening place. At its entrance lay a variety of beautiful flowers, and Kassim and Mariam could remember with stark clarity days where they’d gather those very flowers with Alibaba to make flower crowns, both to sell for their living and to give to Alibaba’s mother.

“Aibou, Mariam and I used to go there to pick flowers as children,” Kassim said with sad fondness in his voice.

“We’ll go back here again,” Mariam said, “The three of us.  We’re going to rescue Alibaba on time, I swear it.”  With that in mind, they entered the cave.  It grew darker and more humid as they walked further in, and more than once one of their party would lose their balance on a particularly unpredictable stalagmite.

“Amon, I’m so sorry” could be heard from the very back of it, and Kassim booked it to find Alibaba lying face-down on the ground, his eyes glazed and his body trembling, those cruel telltale bite marks on his neck.  Alibaba then grabbed his arm and said shakily, “Kassim….”

Kassim turned Alibaba around to face him, and he placed his hands on Alibaba’s shoulders, saying, “Aibou, it’s us, we’ve come here to rescue you, you’re going to be all right–”

“I need you to kill me.”

Kassim gave a start; “What?  No, don’t tell me you’re–”

Alibaba began to cry as he said, “It’s too late for me, Kassim.  He’s drained me to the point where I either turn or die, and I’m far happier with the second option than first.”

Kassim sat Alibaba up, grabbed him by the shoulders and sobbed, “You could have asked me anything in the world but this, Aibou. Don’t you  _ dare _ make me kill you now!”

Alibaba clutched desperately at him now, his voice losing breath as he spoke, “I can’t let him turn me into a vampire, Kassim, he’ll use me to destroy everything we’ve worked for, he’s going to make me kill  _ Hakuryuu _ , and I don’t want that, so please,  _ please… kill me. _ ”

With resignation in his heart and tears in his eyes, Kassim held Alibaba's fading body in his arms and placed the gun to his head; right before he pulled the trigger, Hakuryuu rammed into Kassim’s side and screamed, “ _ How could you?!?! _ ”

He then proceeded to repeatedly punch Kassim in the face, pinning him to the ground and wailing on him. Kassim then flipped him over and yelled, landing a few solid punches on Hakuryuu, “Alibaba asked me to!”

Hakuryuu flipped Kassim back over and cried out, “I’m not letting him die!”

Alibaba groaned in frustration and forced himself to crawl toward the fighting pair. He said, “Stop it, the both of you! The terrible truth is that Hakuryuu, either I die or you do, and I’m not letting it be you!”

Hakuryuu screamed once again and said, grabbing onto Alibaba’s arm, “The bracelet Yunan gave you, it has magoi!”

Kassim blinked, realized his gun had been lost in the tussle, moved to pick up his gun and said, “Well that was a rapid change of subject–”

Hakuryuu sounded like a desperate man as he rambled, “We activate this bracelet and it’ll give Alibaba enough magoi to make it back to the palace!” 

Kassim blinked, shocked at the surprising brilliance of the idea: “So, how do we do that?”

Five minutes later, the others found Kassim and Hakuryuu:

1) repeatedly throwing the bracelet to the ground and wondering if the feathers would crack and thus release the magoi

2) placing the bracelet on multiple areas of Alibaba’s body (“No, Hakuryuu, you can’t place it down there!”  “It’s worth the try!”)

3) swinging it around in circles using Zagan’s vines

“Kassim, Hakuryuu, can either of you explain to me what you’re doing?” Kougyoku said, her jaw practically on the floor. “Alibaba-chan is dying on the floor of this cave and you two didn't even place him somewhere more comfortable?”

“I’m the one giving them ideas….” Alibaba defended before at last knowing no more.

“We’re trying to activate this fucking bracelet, it has some reserve magoi we can use to save Alibaba’s life–Kougyoku, what the hell, where are you taking that bracelet?!”

“Away from you two!  Neither of you have magical abilities, it won’t work coming from you!” Kougyoku said, bring the bracelet to Aladdin, “Aladdin, activate this bracelet, these two morons think they can do it but they really can’t.”

Aladdin held the bracelet gingerly in his hands and said with a deadpan expression on his face, “That is literally the last thing I should be doing.”

“But if that would save Alibaba-chan–”

“That would turn Alibaba-kun into a vampire immediately.”

“Oh.”

Kassim stated bluntly, “Well, that plan’s shot, then.”

Morgiana at last carried Alibaba in her arms and said, “Our priority should be to bring Alibaba-san back to Balbadd City and get him healed.  Killing Yunan, no matter how satisfying that’d be for a good deal of our group, has to get put on the backburner.”

\---------------------

A strange battle the entire group swore to never talk about again involving, of all things, Yunan unleashing an army of vampire pigeons later, they arrived at the palace, and Mariam asked out loud while cradling Alibaba’s unconscious but still alive body, “Okay so how are none of us dead?”

Myron said, “Well, considering we have myself, my perfect adorable girlfriend, that tiny Magi over there–”

“I am not tiny!” Aladdin protested.

“ _ –two _ dhampir King candidates, our rescued third King candidate and two members of your... troupe, I simply assumed our chances of survival would be decent this time around.” 

Before Kassim could attempt to throttle Myron, Morgiana interrupted with a gentle, “The Fog Troupe is a perfectly legitimate vampire slaying troupe, Myr-chan.”

As they placed Alibaba on the bed, Aladdin turned to find both Titus and Sphintus standing there.  “Titus, Sphintus, you’re here!  Wait, what  _ are _ you doing here?”

“Sinbad made the call while you were busy bringing Alibaba back here.  We have an idea for how we’ll be replenishing Alibaba’s blood levels; it involves a blood transference magic that Sphintus perfected during our studies at the academy, and thankfully, we have a volunteer.”  Titus and Sphintus then stepped aside to reveal Lavi sheepishly standing in front of the doorway, Koushi by his side.

Lavi said, turning to his boyfriend, “Koushi, I really don’t need your blood after this.”

“It helps, and we both know it–”

Hakuryuu asked, “Wait, what?”

A wide, catlike grin crossed Lavi’s face as he explained, “Well, one time Koushi went a  _ little _ overboard when drinking my blood, and then, in a desperate attempt to make sure I didn’t die and Patina didn’t murder him in revenge, he gave me his own blood in return; within five minutes of the first sip, I was completely restored!”

Kougyoku said, a quizzically excited look on her face, “So if a dhampir gives a human their blood, it replenishes their blood supply.”

“Also heals any annoying wounds and aches, Koushi keeps making me drink his blood after a hard day’s work,” Lavi continued.

“It also feels really nice,” Koushi said, his face somehow bright red.

“So we don’t even need a full blood transference from you, Lavi, just a pint will suffice,” Titus said, preparing Alibaba for the transfer. He made a small incision on the palm of Alibaba’s hand and murmured a spell to not let any remaining blood escape. 

“Nice!”

Lavi laid down next to Alibaba and let Sphintus prepare him for the blood transfer. Five cuts were made on each of Lavi’s fingertips, and they gingerly placed Lavi’s bleeding hand on the cut on Alibaba’s. 

“This should take a minute at most,” Sphintus said, and he said, “ _ Sangre leviosa _ ”. 

Lavi gasped as blood began to flow from his fingers to Alibaba’s hand, and the king’s rescuers watched as Alibaba’s face began to regain color. The magic faded quickly after the pint was taken, but Lavi still yawned once the transfer was done. 

“How's my Koushishi?” Lavi said right afterward, climbing onto Koushi’s lap, snuggling into his arms and falling asleep there.

“You are the worst, you know that right?” Koushi said, fond affection laced in his voice.

“Alibaba-dono, take my wrist,” Hakuryuu said, placing his cut wrist to Alibaba’s mouth.  By pure instinct, Alibaba began to drink, and Hakuryuu found he couldn't help but moan. 

“Do we need to leave you two alone?” Kougyoku said, a wink to her voice as she glanced down at Hakuryuu and Alibaba.  Hakuryuu’s face turned bright red as he looked down between his legs and found his pants had tightened in a quite literally pointed manner.

“I told you it felt nice!” Koushi said, blushing as Lavi squirmed in his lap.

“I make you feel nice,” Lavi sleepily murmured into Koushi’s neck.

Five minutes later, Alibaba’s full flush came back, and he blearily opened his eyes and saw Hakuryuu there, staring at him with all the love in the world in his eyes. Naturally Alibaba felt compelled to pull Hakuryuu into a searing kiss and whisper a hundred “Thank you”s and “I love you so much”s for the next ten minutes.

As Alibaba finally moved to stand up with Aladdin and Morgiana’s help (the entire room had decided that Hakuryuu helping would only lead to more distracting kissing) a loud crash could be heard at the palace doors. A dark facsimile of a light voice could be heard shouting at the gate. 

“Tell the people of Koutown and the slums to get underground immediately.  This is going to be a battle to the death.  And Sphintus, Titus, tell Sinbad that his calling you here saved my life,” Alibaba said, the authority of a king in his voice.  He walked out of the palace to the gate, Aladdin and Morgiana at his side, Hakuryuu, Kassim, Kougyoku, Myron and Mariam running behind them.

There he was, Yunan clad now in black where green had been. Aladdin could see black rukh fluttering everywhere around him, and the stench of death reeked from him.  “You have failed your people, King Alibaba Saluja.  You have broken trust and refused to live up to the purpose of your existence.  Now accept your natural punishment and watch them die.”

\---------------------

“Everyone go underground now!” Kassim shouted, and the citizens of Balbadd City panicked and ran towards the underground entrances.

“Hakuryuu and I will protect the civilians, Kassim, you make sure the others know the fight we’re in for,” Kougyoku said, activating Vinea and giving him a searing kiss before flying over the city, taking Hakuryuu with her, and swiping Vinea’s spears at any attacking vampires.  Kassim dragged Alibaba along and ran to alert Sinbad and Ja’far as to the gravity of the situation.

“The first thing we need to do after we ensure the civilians are safe is exorcise Il Ilah out of Yunan,” Alibaba said as they ran back to the battlefield.

Sinbad gave a start and yelled, “Alibaba, don’t you dare!”

“Sinbad, I’m the only one that can do this!”

Ja’far pulled Kassim from the fight that would inevitably happen between Sinbad and Alibaba and found themselves fighting three members of Al-Thamen at once.  To their eternal pride, all three of them would fall before Sinbad and Alibaba’s fight ended. Aladdin then swooped in and created a protective Borg around Sinbad and Alibaba, ensuring their fight wouldn't be fatally interrupted. 

Sinbad grabbed Alibaba by the arm and said, “I’m not going to let you risk your life one more time!  We’re going to destroy Il Ilah once and for all!”

“Even if it means killing Yunan?!” Alibaba said, anger in his eyes.

Sinbad screamed in frustration and said, “Sacrifices have to be made, Alibaba-kun.  You of all people should know that–”

Alibaba snapped at him, screaming, “You know Yunan’s innocent in all this, you know Il Ilah’s been possessing him to do this, and yet you’d sacrifice him to–”

“I’m not sacrificing  _ you _ !” Sinbad said, grabbing Alibaba by the shoulders, “I loved your father, and I won’t let one of his only living sons die for no reason!  And you’re  _ my son too _ .”  Alibaba and Sinbad paused; at last the truth of the matter came out.

After a minute for the weight of that noble tragic truth to settle upon them, Alibaba said, “Sinbad, you’ve protected me for so many years, you’ve protected Balbadd for even more, and you saved my life from Il Ilah even today.  But please, in this case, I need you to _ trust me _ .”  He then activated his djinn equip and flew toward the black-rukhed Yunan, Aladdin’s Borg vanishing as he watched Alibaba go. 

“AMOL DHERRSAIQA!” Alibaba cried out, jumping at the Il-Ilah possessed Yunan, slicing at the Borg he had created and shattering it.  He then placed a hand to Yunan’s chest and cried out, “AMOL MUTAHIR!”  Alibaba trembled as the magic flowed through him, and both he and Yunan collapsed onto the ground.  Il Ilah almost seemed to stumble out of Yunan’s body, yet it turned around fiercely to try to get back in, only to find Alibaba throwing himself over Yunan’s prone body and blocking the way.  

“You will not possess Yunan again.  Not in this world, nor in any other,” Alibaba said, fire-sword blazing under his grip.

“You will be snuffed out, Alibaba Saluja,” Il Ilah hissed, and it extended all its tentacles towards him with killing in mind.

Alibaba refused to dodge, and he was hit with the full force of the attack.  His djinn equip was completely stripped away, and he lay nearly motionless on the ground in his kingly robes.  Alibaba struggled to get up (Aladdin honestly wondered how Alibaba was still alive), and as Il Ilah turned to finish him, Aladdin stepped in front of Alibaba and unleashed his Borg once more.

“You will not touch my king again,” Aladdin snarled, and a giant man of sand proceeded to pick up Il Ilah and toss him multiple times into the air.  He had another man of sand transport Yunan away from Il Ilah, and then he turned to Alibaba and asked, “You’ll be all right?”

Alibaba grinned at Aladdin and said, “With you here?   _ Always _ .”

“Alibaba, don’t you dare scare me like that again,” Hakuryuu cried out, and he ran to him and kissed him fully.  What felt like sweet eternity but in reality was about thirty seconds later, Hakuryuu could hear the gasp of a creature from behind him.  Hakuryuu turned to see it writhe under a burning blade, futilely reaching for Hakuryuu, and collapse a moment later.  He turned back to see a laughing Alibaba pull him in for another kiss, then say, “We can’t have you distracted in battle, can we?”

“You have the nerve to laugh at me now,” Hakuryuu said with no lack of affection, “Also what was that thing that attacked me?”

“I honestly don’t know.”

“Hakuryuu, Alibaba, pull yourselves together quickly, something terrible’s happened!” Aladdin said, outright terror in his eyes.

“What happened?”

“Look!”

Il Ilah’s colossal form began to descend down upon the earth, and the bodies of everyone in Al-Thamen were being absorbed into it.  Hundreds of thousands of wraith-like vampires were flowing out of Il Ilah, and the ecstatic screams of Al-Thamen’s members could be heard from all over Balbadd City.

Alibaba stared in horror at Il Ilah descending and said, “What the shit… everyone in Al-Thamen is dead!”

Sinbad said, activating Baal’s djinn equip, “They sacrificed themselves to unleash Il Ilah’s army.”

“WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN AL-THAMEN SUMMONED A FUCKING IL ILAH-CREATED VAMPIRE SHIT ARMY?!?!”

“Who screamed that out?” Sahbmad said, suddenly appearing on the battlefield.

Koumei, who had been dragged along, sighed from behind them and said, “None other than my dear older–”

Sinbad interrupted with a growled, “ _ Kouen _ .”

\---------------------

The army of Il Ilah-created vampires flew at them; they were gaunt craven creatures, with white faces, black bagged eyes and wearing black cloaks and little hats.

“So how are we going to defeat these fuckers?” a voice said from behind Aladdin.

“Kouha, you’re here!” Aladdin said, running to him and giving him a hug.

Kouha hugged back and said, “You really think I’d miss the chance of a lifetime to use my giant sword to guiltlessly kill everything in my path?”

Aladdin blinked, mentally noted the black sun on Kouha’s neck, and inferred that Judal’s influence on Kouha might have exacerbated his more murderous qualities and therefore Aladdin himself should not end up anywhere near Kouha’s path of rampaging death; after all that, he said, “Good point.”

Speaking of Judal, he flew happily down and immediately froze about fifty of the vampires in place with a single blast of ice magic.  “How’s the chibi magi doing?”

“Dammit, Judal, I’m not tiny!” Aladdin screamed, and the burst of heat magic that followed incinerated the previously-frozen vampires.

Sahbmad and Koumei then rode into the battlefield with an artillery of weapons and cried out, “Everyone stock up here!”

“Oh thank Solomon,” Zaynab said, grabbing the bazooka and calling her husband to help her carry it.  The other members of both the Fog Troupe and Fanalis Corps grabbed as many weapons as they could and started shooting at the vampires immediately.

‘You stay with the artillery, Sahbmad,” Koumei said, kissing his lips.

“I want to fight this time,” Sahbmad said, “I’m not going to cower against an enemy again.”

 

“You’re going to be defending the artillery, Sahbmad, that’s no coward’s job,” Koumei said.  “If anything, mine could be said to be the task of the–”

“Where are you going?”

Koumei answered, “I’m using Dantalion to transport the people of Balbadd City to Remano and Naporlia; the Reim Empire’s being particularly generous today by providing temporary housing to the civilians there.”

It was Sahbmad’s turn to kiss Koumei better, saying, “Delivering people to safety is its own kind of bravery, darling.”

To their eternal surprise, the next people to snag some weapons belonged to neither the Fog Troupe nor the Fanalis Corps.

“Satoshi, Aliya, what are you doing here?!” Myron said, watching the couple gather weapons for far more than two people could ever need. 

“This city and its people have protected us in our most dire hour. It only seems fair that we should repay the favor,” Satoshi said, gesturing toward the small troupe of fifty dhampirs ready to fight. Somehow Koushi managed to make himself included too. 

“Didn't you just nurse Lavi back to health?” Myron said.

“Yes… and then he repaid the favor because he knew I wanted to help you in this battle,” Koushi said. “He, Patina and Husani are helping to safeguard the palace as we speak.”

Mariam and Aladdin happily examined the weapons and said, “Now that we have a consistent stockpile of weapons… we get to work.”

Zaynab and Hassan worked together to use the bazooka the Kou Empire had perfected on the Il Ilah-created vampires and found that they could easily knock out ten per blast.  Mariam and Kassim fought back-to-back, watching the vampires’ bodies pile up in front of them and having to move every ten minutes or so in order that the piles of dead vampire might not fall on them.

Satoshi, Aliya and Koushi made a surprisingly effective trio of fighters; Aliya would distract them with a self-inflicted cut to the hand, and the occupied vampire would meet its end in one of three ways. Either Aliya would simply shoot them, Koushi would slice them through with the sword he grabbed, or Satoshi would viciously rip them to shreds with his bare hands. 

Morgiana flew through the air using her Metal Vessel, swiping away at the airborne vampires and preventing them from attacking the others.  Myron was having the time of her life using her own Metal Vessel and snapping the necks of her enemies left and right.  Muu also let himself get carried away by the thrill of battle, and he often even went so far as to use the vampires’ corpses as weapons to destroy other vampires.

“How many have you killed?”

“Fifty-seven!” Kassim cried out.

“Well, would you look at that, fucker, I just killed fifty-eight!” Myron shouted, snapping a vampire’s neck.

Two gunshots later, Kassim yelled, “Fifty-nine!”

Hakuryuu and Kougyoku were having a rivalry of their own, using their competing djinn equips to see how many vampires they could each kill in one fell swoop.

“I got forty-seven vampires with a single swipe of this arm!  It’s almost like getting my arm cut off was the best thing that could have happened to me as a fighter!” Hakuryuu said, bloodthirsty laughter in his voice.

“VAINEL AL-SALLOS!” Kougyoku cried out, and she happily added, “I got fifty of them at once!  Beat  _ that _ , Hakuryuu!”

Sinbad and Ja’far teamed up once more, and this time it was Focalor who came out to play with the vampires.  Kouen and Hakuei also teamed up, immediately activating Astoroth and Paimon, and the competition between those proved almost too intense for the rest of their allies, let alone their hundreds of dead enemies.  Kouha was in his own form of heaven as his giant sword swiped away at dozens of enemies at a time, and Judal laughed all the while and shot ice at each and every enemy he could.

As for Alibaba and Aladdin, they spent their battle watching Yunan like a hawk lest he get possessed again, though more than a few vampires fell by Alibaba’s fiery blade and Aladdin’s mastery of magic. 

“All King Candidates and Magi work to destroy Il Ilah!  Everyone else, keep taking out these fucking vampires!” Sinbad suddenly cried out, activating Baal’s djinn equip and shocking a hundred of them to their graves at once.

“We’ll deal with those fuckers, now you get rid of that demon-abomination-I seriously have no clue what it actually is once and for all!” Kassim yelled.

Myron added, “They’re not like any vampires I’ve ever seen, that’s for sure!”

With Sinbad’s order, Alibaba, Hakuryuu, Kougyoku, Kouen, Kouha, Hakuei, Muu and Sinbad himself prepared to unleash their Extreme Magics, and the four Magi created a Borg around them and attempted to amplify their power.

“On the count of three, we unleash our Extreme Magics,” Kouen said, attempting to take the lead, “One, two, three!”

“PA’IR AL-HAZARD!”

“ASTOR INQERAD!”

“LELAZZO MADRAGA!”

“BARARAQ INQERAD-SAIQA!”

“ZAUG INQERAD!”

“VAINEL GANEZZA!”

“BARD LONGINEUS!”

“AMOL AL-BADOR SAIQA!”

The Extreme Magics all hit Il-Ilah at once, and the four Magi used their specialty magics to amplify their power.  An explosion the size of Balbadd City itself engulfed the battlefield, yet once the dust settled, Il Ilah still stood.  It was severely weakened, but it stood nonetheless.

“How… how is that thing still alive?!” Kougyoku asked.

Muu added, “We’ve used up our magoi, we can’t try that again!”  Yunan then stared long at the writhing creature and began to walk toward it, his staff beginning to glow.

“Yunan, what are you doing?” Aladdin asked, a small part of himself already knowing the answer.

“This creature’s ascendancy is my fault!  I was the one possessed by it, and I will not let my weakness destroy this beautiful world,” Yunan said, beginning to unleash his magoi.

Alibaba stumbled toward him and said, “It’s not your fault, Yunan, don’t do this!”

Yunan placed a gentle hand to Alibaba’s face and said, “Alibaba-kun, you have been nothing short of wonderful with me, despite all that I’ve done to you under his power.  If it takes my death to ensure that the rest of the world shall live, I’ll do it!  I’ll sacrifice myself to finish Il Ilah once and for all for what it has done to me!”

“Yunan, wait!”

Yunan launched himself at Il Ilah and stabbed it with his staff; it shook with primal terror, and as the light from the staff grew brighter and brighter, it almost screamed.  Its tentacles lashed at Yunan in a final, desperate attempt to stay alive, but as the staff grew too bright for anyone to see it and the rukh turned so dazzlingly gold that even goi could see, Yunan whispered, “This is goodbye for the both of us, I suppose” and rammed the staff fully into what could be called Il Ilah’s heart. 

Il Ilah outright exploded, and the battlefield turned silent as the vampires all disappeared in a puff of black dust, and Aladdin found himself walking through it to find Yunan motionless on the ground.  Alibaba ran beside Aladdin and began to cradle Yunan in his arms.

He looked up and said, “There has to be a way we can–”

“There is, Alibaba-kun!” Aladdin said, smiling, “Look at your arm!”

With that, Alibaba’s eyes widened hopefully, and he transferred the feathered cuff from his left arm to Yunan’s.  Aladdin, beside him, muttered the incantation to activate the magoi within it.

A gasp of life later….

“What did I do to deserve this miracle?”

 

\---------------------

EPILOGUE 

ONE YEAR LATER

The royal palace at Balbadd was once again buzzing with activity, for a wedding between the king of one country and the formerly-exiled prince of another was inevitably quite the event.  Husani proved busier than ever, though thankfully he had the help of an ecstatic (and perhaps a little lovestruck) Patina.  However, King Alibaba was buzzing not with excitement but with an odd sort of dread, and only Aladdin could try to comfort him.

“Alibaba-kun, your wedding’s going to go off without a hitch if it’s the last thing I do,” Aladdin said, placing the crown on Alibaba’s head and looking fondly at the new mark on the left side of his neck, that of a white and blue dragon.

“I just… I’m worried that the karma from my broken contract with Yunan’s finally going to punch me in the gut here, to be honest,” Alibaba said, “And I really don’t want my wedding day being ruined by a surprise ‘Whoops, you accidentally soul-married Yunan by letting Hakuryuu drink your blood’.”

“Honestly, Alibaba?”   _ Speak of the devil and he appears, _ Alibaba thought as Yunan walked up to him and began to laugh.  “You do realize that’s not how blood contracts work, right?”  

“I still broke the contract, though, by letting Hakuryuu drink my blood,” Alibaba said, and Yunan laughed even more loudly; was he a glutton for punishment?

“Our contract become void the moment Il Ilah possessed me, and yet you honored it beyond any expectation.  You tried to get me help through every means you could, even though it would have been much easier to simply leave me, and you nearly sacrificed your life to free me.  And then, when I was perfectly content with dying to destroy Il Ilah, you found a way to deliver me from death yet again.  I think your life has been given to me a thousand times over, Alibaba Saluja, and simply giving Hakuryuu your blood  _ once _ to save his life doesn’t warrant me essentially  _ owning _ you for the rest of yours.  Anyway, I think a certain Magi would have words for me were I to even try to stake a claim on you again,” Yunan said, pointing to Aladdin.

“Yes I would,” Aladdin said, his staff at the ready.

\------------------

Hakuryuu, oddly enough, was also nervous about the wedding, though for far different reasons than Alibaba had been.  “Is Mother going to be disappointed that she's not giving me away, Hakuei?”

“She's going to watch the wedding with Yunan, and she told me she's happy to do even that,” Hakuei said, placing the crown on Hakuryuu’s head and giving him a gentle smile.

“Honestly, I’m glad she's taking full responsibility for what happened to the Kou Empire’s dhampirs.  From what you’ve told me, Gyokuen was compelled by this creature called Arba to sign the order threatening our lives, but so many of us were killed nonetheless,” Kougyoku said sadly.

“Perhaps we should try to speak of happier things on your wedding day, Hakuryuu?” Hakuei asked, and when Kougyoku began to talk about Alibaba’s promises to Hakuryuu for their wedding night, Hakuryuu turned bright red and tried to change the subject to something more innocuous like the food they planned to indulge in at the wedding.  However, Kougyoku remained firm in her desire to see Hakuryuu explode with blushing thoughts even before he saw his future husband in his wedding robes and why was Kougyoku being so  _ unfair _ ?!

\------------------

Alibaba had managed to get ready for the wedding procession first, and he waited with Kassim at the head of it.  He turned to him and said, “So it looks like we both fell for dhampirs, didn’t we?”

“Yes we did, Aibou,” Kassim said, the mark upon his neck resembling a red flower crown.  “Now if only I could find a way to get Aladdin away from my sister…”

“You and I both know that’s not going to happen,” Alibaba said, “Especially since if the rumor mill is correct, Aladdin’s planning to propose to her tonight.”

“Well, that’ll be my particular hell bridge to cross when I come to it,” Kassim said as Hakuryuu approached them.

“So Kougyoku kept me a while by talking about what you plan to let me do to you tonight,” Hakuryuu whispered in Alibaba’s ear, and it was Alibaba’s turn to turn bright red.  Hakuryuu then grinned further as he said, “I wonder what's going to happen when Sinbad and Kouen give us away in marriage to each other,” 

“We’ll either accidentally start a world war or inadvertently cause world peace, one of the two!” Alibaba said, shrugging as he gave Hakuryuu a kiss on the cheek and waved Aladdin to them.

“I don’t know if I could have gotten two better best men for my wedding than you,” Alibaba said, hugging both Kassim and Aladdin.

“I don’t know, I think I’ve gotten myself quite the fantastic best woman over there,” Hakuryuu said, pointing at an approaching Kougyoku.

“Mor-san, Myron, get over here! The wedding procession is going start in a few minutes!” Alibaba yelled, almost bouncing out of his wedding clothes. “Also, why’s Judal already drunk? The wedding procession hasn't even started yet.”

“Judal’s just mad he didn’t get to be Hakuryuu’s best man after all,” Kougyoku said, happily preening next to Hakuryuu as his best woman and kissing Kassim on the cheek. 

“Kouha’s comforting him over there,” Hakuryuu said, pointing toward said already-drunk Judal and a fondly exasperated Kouha. 

“Why are these two assholes I don’t even  _ know _ in their wedding party, but I’m not?!” Judal bawled, pointing at Lavi and Koushi.

“I’m not in their wedding party either, Kougyoku’s wedding to Kassim will be so much better than this stupid get-together because we WILL be in their wedding party, I’m normally the one crying why is this happening to me?!” Kouha said, rubbing Judal’s back and whispering words of comfort in his ear. Considering how red Judal’s face got afterward, what Kouha said must have worked. 

Koushi walked over to them, tapped Judal’s shoulder and said, “Well, Lavi did save King Alibaba’s life, and it’s probably a way to return the favor.”

“What do you know, stupid dhampir?!?!”

“Is he drunk?”

“Yes,” Kouha said.

Lavi sighed fondly and patted Koushi’s back, saying while preening over the red lion mark on his neck, “It’s all right, Koushishi, you tried–”

“STOP CALLING ME KOUSHISHI IT’S NOT CUTE!”

“It’s fucking adorable!  And we have a wedding procession to be a part of!” With that Lavi and Koushi ran to their places in the wedding procession. 

Sinbad and Kouen approached the wedding party and grabbed Alibaba and Hakuryuu’s arms respectively, taking their places for the wedding procession and pointedly not looking at each other.  Aladdin sighed; some things never change.

Aladdin left Alibaba’s side for a couple minutes to find Mariam gently placing a flower crown on Sahbmad’s head and trying to get him to leave Koumei behind for the wedding procession. Sahbmad protested for a couple more minutes before at last relenting and walking toward Alibaba’s side.  

“The wedding”s starting in a minute!  You’re coming with us, right?” Aladdin said, reaching out for Mariam’s hand.

She took it and said, a radiant smile on her face, “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

The night was loud with celebration in the streets of Balbadd as Alibaba and Hakuryuu’s wedding procession went through the joyous slums, then through an even more ecstatic Koutown, then through the perhaps-not-quite-as-happy-to-have-their-business-interrupted-by-a-wedding-procession marketplace and finally back to the palace where they said their vows, and none of them would have had it any other way.

**Author's Note:**

> And here we are! Here's the fantastic art I got for this story! 
> 
> http://rachelanimation.tumblr.com/post/162921033993/this-is-my-peice-for-the-magi-big-bang-i-got-the


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